When we are talking about a possessive relationship, we can often use the prepositional genitive instead of the adjectival genitive structure with the same meaning:

The door of the car.
The roof of the church.
The battery of the/my watch

In other circumstances, for example, to talk about the position in space or time, the genitive with of may be the only alternative:

The end of the film (and not, the film end).

The top of the bottle ("the bottle top" means a lid we put on a bottle).
(The part of a bottle that is at the top.)

However, for animated nouns, the use of the genitive with of is not usual. For example:

The house of my parents (we do not usually say this).

It is much more common to say:

My parents' house.     

The double genitive.

It is possible to combine the prepositional of genitive with the apostrophe structure:

He is a friend of my mother's.
(Means, he is a friend that my mother has.)

She's a cousin of the King's.
(Means, she is a cousin that the King has.)

The possessive pronoun is really a Saxon genitive without the apostrophe. So the following are also double genitives:

She is a friend of ours.

John is a work colleague of his.

• It is very common to see this structure in the names of the types of shop:

The butcher's (shop).

We often omit the noun shop:

The butcher's
The baker's
A stationer's.
I'm going to the hairdresser's.

Many famous department stores in London have now omitted the apostrophe from their shop name leaving just the s:

Harrods

Selfridges
Debenhams

But it is still common to see the names of establishments and buildings such as:

Joe's café
Sylvia's shoe shop.
St Paul's Cathedral.
Nelson's Column.

• We talk about the house where someone lives with this genitive:

I'm going to John's (house).
There's a party at Mary's (house).

Note that we use the definite article the when we refer to the houses where families live:

I went at the Smiths' yesterday.
That house is the Jones's.

Note that we usually only use the apostrophe on the last name if there are more than one:

Let's go to John and Mary's
    

• It is also common to see the 's genitive with inanimate nouns when related to human activity:

The report's conclusions.

The plan's importance.
The committee's proposals.

The of genitive is also possible: The decision of the committee, etc.

• With place names:

Madrid's football teams.

Seville's beauty.
England's green fields.

• Human activity with reference to time and dates:

Monday's meeting.

This week's conference.
Last year's World Cup Final.
   
                                                                Common errors.

With the genitive + 's, we should not use the definite article "the" with people's names or with nouns that do not usually take the article:

This is John's pen (and not, the John's house).
Cleopatra's Needle (and not, the Cleopatra's Needle).
Parliament's decision (and not, the Parliament's decision).

However, we can say:

The President's men.
The Queen's speech.

This is because we always use these proper nouns with the article: "I am the Queen"; "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States!".

My name’s Frank. Who is my mother’s younger sister’s father’s brother-in-law’s wife’s father’s only great grandson? My uncle is called John and his father is called Jim. Jim has got two brothers Jack and Jeremy