Everyone here spoke sign language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha's Vineyard details the history, etiology, and ethnography of deafness on Martha's Vineyard between the 17th century and the death of the last resident in 1952. Nora Ellen Groce, the author and principal investigator of this study, extensively details the lives of deaf and hearing residents of Martha's Vineyard by referring to remaining documents and interviewing several current residents who, at at the time, were between 80 and 90 years old. The residents, or in Groce’s terms, “informants,” were very helpful and informative in sharing the stories and memories of several deaf residents. Groce not only uses an oral and historical approach to study the history of deafness on Martha's Vineyard, but she also includes the genetic component and describes certain medical abnormalities such as birth trauma and theories of Mendelian genetics. This report discusses Groce's analysis of the medical etiology of deafness, the differences in attitudes between the mainland and Martha's Vineyard regarding deafness, and the lifestyles of Martha's Vineyard residents that coincide and contrast with those of locals of the continent. This report will also discuss .Groce's improvements and genetic analysis includes the use of family pedigrees and Mendelian concepts, otherwise known as the recessive gene, to trace the etiology of deafness on the island. After tracing numerous family pedigrees, including that of the first deaf resident Jonathan Lambert, Groce discovered an interesting link that plays a role in the transmission of deafness from generation to generation. She theorizes that "...the genetic mutation [deafness] must have first occurred in someone who lived in the middle of a paper...tching" when she shares a steamy story is also another example of " Deaf Gain”: “If there were a group of guys around the general store telling a [dirty] story and a woman came in, they would turn away from her and finish the story in sign language” (67) . Interestingly, Groce notes in his book that, with funding advanced to attend the first public school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut, "deaf winemakers were better educated than their hearing neighbors" (78). This observation shows how patience and acceptance towards deaf people within a community makes a difference in educational outcomes. Overall, between the 17th and the beginning of the 20th century, the island pursued this policy of inclusion for all deaf and hearing inhabitants, while on the mainland, the majority of the population followed policies of exclusion, unfortunately.