Watch out for that apostrophe. In this context it signifies possession, not plurality. Rainwater is a single, proper noun. Rainwaters is the plural of that noun ("All the Rainwaters came home."). The apostrophe is used only for possession, as in "Miles Rainwater's house," and, in the plural, the "Rainwaters' house." When Rainwaters is the actual name, the plural becomes Rainwaterses, the singular possessive Rainwaters's and the plural possessive Rainwaterses'. See p. 159-162 of The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition. Although Rainwater as the singular would occasion no exceptions to these rules, Rainwaters as the singular could, as many experts accept shortened forms, like Rainwaters', for the singular possessive. Joseph Lambert >Did some members go by Rainwaters and others by Rainwater, >> did the writer intend to say Rainwater's when mentioning multiple persons? Joseph B. Lambert Department of Chemistry Northwestern University 2145 Sheridan Road Evanston, IL 60208-3113 Telephone 847-491-5437 Fax 847-491-7713 E-mail lambert@casbah.acns.nwu.edu or jlambert@nwu.edu Webpage http://www.chem.nwu.edu/~lambert/ (best with Netscape 3.0 or higher)