I could use some advice from some other researchers. I've been researching the West family surname for many years and have failed to move any farther than my great-grandfather Thomas West b. ca 1815 d. ca. 1865 and his wife Dorothy Rock (1817-1886). They last lived in Guilford Township, Franklin county. According to the 1850 and 1860 census, both were born in Pennsylvania. Dorothy appears in 1870, but Thomas is nowhere to be found. I can locate no birth, marriage, death or burial records for either and have visited the courthouse, historical society and libraries. I'm revisiting a piece of information passed down verbally through a cousin's line that said that the West surname had been shortened. The same source said that the immigrant had either been born in Scotland and immigrated to Germany or born in Germany and then immigrated to Scotland before settling in the U.S. Gordon, I'm hoping you may be able to shed some light on this puzzle? Any leads, however small would sure be appreciated. -Barb