The email about the plurals of surnames was well received, so I thought I would mention another place where the apostrophe is misused by genealogists. The plural of a decade or century should not contain an apostrophe. For example, 1740's and 1900's are incorrect. They should be 1740s and 1900s. http://www.ohio.edu/publications/editor.html See 5.1. As another website said, "Apostrophes indicate possession or contractions, not plurality." An example of a contraction would be, "She graduated in '65." That is a proper use of the apostrophe with dates. While we are on the topic of plurals, if you are looking at a book of baptism records that lists the date of birth for each person, how would you express the plural of 'date of birth?' Would 'dates of birth' or 'date of births' be correct? The answer is the first one, 'dates of birth.' Finally, one more thing about surname plurals. Some surnames exist with an 's' at the end of them, whereas the 's' is lacking in a spelling variation of the same surname. Michael and Michaels are such an example. To place an 's' at the end of the Michael surname to make a plural could mislead the reader. In such a case, I always reword the sentence to avoid using the plural of the name. Instead of saying, "There are 25 Michaels buried in that cemetery," I would say, "There are 25 people by the surname of Michael buried in that cemetery." Or, "There are 25 people by the surname of Michaels buried in that cemetery." The reader should not get confused about the meanings of those sentences. Cliff Lamere