If you simply mean families from Virginia travelling west, there would be a number of possible routes by 1850: if they were in central western VA they could drive their wagon up the Shenandoah Valley on what's now Rt 11 to Hagerstown MD and take the National Road, now Rt 40, which could either take them all the way to Vandalia, IL. or, if they liked, to Brownsville PA where they could sell their wagon and get a steamboat on the Monongahela River, which could then go up to the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, from there anywhere in the Mississippi watershed.

From the southwest, they could also take the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike all the way to the Ohio river. That was a mountainous route, and perhaps longer than gong north in the Valley to Hagerstown, but it would be direct.

From eastern VA they could either take Rt 1 up to Baltimore, or, even faster, get a steamboat on the Chesapeake Bay to take them there: and pick up the National Road in Baltimore. The B&O Railroad in 1850 would also get someone from Baltimore or Washington to Cumberland MD and the National Road but no further, not reaching the Ohio river until 1853.

And of course VA included what's now WV in 1850: a western border was the Ohio River. Someone near that could get a steamboat at Huntington, Parkersburg or Wheeling.

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Karl Raitz: The National Road