A very common punctuation error in genealogy is the use of the apostrophe followed by an 's' to create the plural of a surname. Exampled of that wrong usage follows: "There are seven Chadwick's on the census page." "Has anyone found obituaries for any Horner's in this county?" The error is becoming so common that it had me wondering if it was I who was doing it wrong. A little research had confirmed that an apostrophe should NOT be used to make the plural of a surname. Gardner's is incorrect as a plural, but correct to show possession (as in "Betty Gardner's pie was great."). The following plurals are correct. For most surnames, simply add an 's' to form the plural of it. Smith --> Smiths Bailey --> Baileys Gardner --> Gardners Van Woert --> Van Woerts However, if the name ends in an s, x, ch, sh, or a z, the plural is formed by adding an -es. Jones --> Joneses Maddox --> Maddoxes March --> Marches Rush --> Rushes Martinez --> Martinezes http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp See Rule 5. I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2010. Cliff Lamere

Cliff, Some good pointers for sentence construction. I would just hasten to point out that another proper use of the apostrophe with names would be as follows, "The Wilsons' genealogy is enclosed." This would be an example of plural possessive such as for a specific Wilson family as opposed to, "The Wilsons genealogy is enclosed." which would imply all Wilson families. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Cliff Lamere <clifflamere@nycap.rr.com> To: nyalbany@rootsweb.com; nycolumb@rootsweb.com; nyrensse@rootsweb.com Sent: Fri, Jan 1, 2010 4:32 pm Subject: [NYALBANY] Plurals of surnames A very common punctuation error in genealogy is the use of the postrophe followed by an 's' to create the plural of a surname. Exampled (Examples) of that wrong usage follows: There are seven Chadwick's on the census page." Has anyone found obituaries for any Horner's in this county?" The error is becoming so common that it had me wondering if it was I who as doing it wrong. A little research had confirmed that an apostrophe should NOT be used to ake the plural of a surname. Gardner's is incorrect as a plural, but orrect to show possession (as in "Betty Gardner's pie was great."). The following plurals are correct. For most surnames, simply add an 's' o form the plural of it. Smith --> Smiths ailey --> Baileys ardner --> Gardners an Woert --> Van Woerts However, if the name ends in an , x, ch, sh, or a z, he plural is formed by adding an -es. Jones --> Joneses addox --> Maddoxes arch --> Marches ush --> Rushes artinez --> Martinezes http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/apostro.asp See Rule 5. I wish you all a very happy and healthy 2010. Cliff Lamere ===NY-Albany Mailing List==== heck out the mailing list's website at:http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/Albany/ dd/check your Albany surnames on the Surname Registry. ------------------------------ o unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to NYALBANY-request@rootsweb.com ith the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of he message