Victoria Regional History Center

The VC/UHV Library is one of 25 Regional Historical Resource Depositories (RHRD) established by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission to archive non-current county records of Texas. The VC/UHV Library houses the records of seven counties:

Many of these Texas county records have been microfilmed and are available for viewing here in the Library. Microfilmed records for other Texas counties may be ordered through our Interlibrary Loan service. For an electronic listing of all Texas county records on microfilm and the depositories that house them, visit Texas State Library, Regional Historical Resource Depositories: Contacts and Counties Housed.

This collection represents the records of local historian and journalist Sidney R. Weisiger (1906-1975). Much of the collection consists of Weisiger’s own research notes, correspondence, speeches, and records of his involvement with historical and genealogical organization. Additionally, there are materials that Weisiger collected from various sources, including court records, correspondence of local people, records of businesses, photographs, brochures, maps, and other assorted items. Many of these materials have been transcribed by Victoria Regional History Center staff , and are available on the VRHC website. Visit the Sidney Roper Weisiger Collection on the Web.

Compiled by an unknown member of the Fimble family of Victoria, the Fimble Collection is three scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, primarily from the Victoria Advocate newspaper, ranging in date from 1901 to 1944. The articles are mostly obituary notices, but there are also some clippings on marriages and other topics. The articles’ subjects are often Victoria families who, like the Fimbles, originally immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine (now part of France). Sidney Weisiger acquired the scrapbooks from a local re-sale shop. He spent many hours indexing every name mentioned in every clipped article. The original index has been transcribed and enhanced by VRHC staff and is available online for searching at the VRHC website. When available, the name of the newspaper and date the article was published is given, enabling access to the article from microfilmed newspapers in the Library’s Periodicals Department. Search the Fimble Collection Index.

This database contains names of immigrants who entered the United States through the port of Indianola in the 1800s. Compiled by Patsy Hand of the Victoria County Historical Commission, additional information, including the name of the ship, date of arrival, port of entry, spouse and children’s names is also available in the database. The Indianola Immigrant Database is searchable on this website. Search the Indianola Immigrant Database.