We so often see the apostrophe used in the wrong place. Here I want to talk about just one of those instances.
When the word the is used in front of a surname, the name HAS to be plural. We do not say "the Nelson" or "the Lawson." The name has to be plural: "the Nelsons" and "the Lawsons."
We run into more problems when the name ends in an s because often it is not pronounced correctly. Without regard to how it is pronounced, the name ending in s has to be plural after the word the. It is "the Joneses" and "the Martinezes" and "the Hodegeses." My husband and I are "the Wellses."
And now if we need to make this name possessive to show ownership, it is plural possessive.
...the Nelsons' car...
...the Lawsons' daughter...
...the Joneses' house...
...the Martinezes' neighborhood...
...the Hodgeses' opinion...
...the Wellses' party...
Happy punctuating!
Margie