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For the plural possessive of a surname, would you concur that these are correct?

the Rogerses' house (surname is 'Rogers') or should it be "the Rogers' house" for the plural possessive because 'Rogerses' is awkward?

the Hastingses' property (surname is 'Hastings') or should it be "the Hastings' property"for the plural possessive because 'Hastingses' is awkward?

Correct to these four?

the Williamses' property line

the Kennedys' house

the Joneses' dog

the Goronskys' pool

And lastly, would the following be a possessive or descriptive? 1 or 2?

(1) the Stevenses' family tree

(2) the Stevens family tree

A big and appreciative thanks.

Community
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whippoorwill
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1 Answers1

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I checked the BNC (British National Corpus), and found the example:

...but he had been a frequent visitor at the Stevenses' home...

I think you can use both variants. In one way, you can leave Rogers or modify to Rogerses because Rogers is already carries in a way the plural meaning as it is the family, which consists of several persons, name. Rogers can be considered as the family entity (singular). Thus, the possesive case would be Rogers'house(adding the apostrophe) or Rogerses'house. The same is applied for Hastings'property, Williams' property line, Kennedy'house, Jones' dog, the Goronsky' pool.

Darius Miliauskas
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