I have a big mess and am hoping for help from Ross CO experts. In 1797 Reverend David Badgley led a migration of 154 people from Hardy CO VA (now WVA) to southern Illinois, traveling on the Ohio River then overland to the vicinity of present-day Belleville. The trip turned into a disaster due to torrential rains, flooded land, exhaustion, not enough food, and finally an epidemic that killed half of them in the summer and fall that followed their July 4 arrival. Some of the survivors immediately picked up and left, and we know of two families that later appeared in Ross CO OH; surnames were CLARK and WHETSTONE. We have wonderful documentation in that one of the Clark children, then ten years old, wrote her memoirs before her death in the 1870's and remembered very well the migration and the death of three brothers before her father removed his family to OH. I am wondering now if any of the others might have also gone to Ross CO (so I'm not just looking for Clarks and Whetstones but more for the circumstances that might have taken people to Ross CO).. So, if you have picked up a similar history from your research or from family story---a big migration from Virginia, arrival in Illinois, a disastrous summer of floods, sickness, and death, and then a retreat to Ross CO----I'd love to hear about it. Where they came from in Virginia was Hardy CO. Where they were in Illinois could be called either St. Clair CO or Monroe CO (not sorted out yet then). Other place names associated with this migration would be Kaskaskia IL (which is where they were heading) and New Design, the town where they ended up. I am trying to reconstruct the list of travelers who journeyed with Badgley. If you can cast light on what happened to any of them, please contact direct. Thanks, Nora Tocus