I understand but what I described is what I want to do - no it is not
an academic exercise.

See an example of the required grouping - attribute and text nodes may
be present but are ignored for the purpose of grouping.

<A>
  <!-- start group>
  <B>
     <C>
     <D>
  </B>
  <B>
     <C>
     <D>
  </B>
  <! --end group>
  <B>  *** singleton group
  <C>  *** singleton group
  <!-- start group>
  <D>
    <E>
    <E>
      <F>
     <E>
   </D>
   <D>
    <E>
    <E>
      <F>
     <E>
   </D>
   <!-- end group>
     <!-- start group>
  <B>
     <C>
     <D>
  </B>
  <B>
     <C>
     <D>
  </B>
  <! --end group>
  </A>

      I am trying to group the children of each
      element by the  local name of all of the
      descendant elements of each child.

      I am trying to group adjacent children
      where the sets of local names of descendent
      elements in document order of each child
      are identical.

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