THIS PAGE CONTAINS FILES OF VARIOUS RECORDS

• Census Records, 1850, 1860
• Death Records
• At the Courthouse Door-Sheriff and Tax Lien Sales in Lavaca County
• Local Epidemics

The Downloads, below, are an alphabetical index of all the deaths printed in the existing Lavaca County newspapers between October 1873 and 1877 and December 1887 to December 1894. The newspapers indexed are the only Lavaca County newspapers available from that time period; other newspapers were never microfilmed.

The purpose of this list is to help researchers find documented evidence of deaths that occurred prior to 1860. The majority of the individuals in this index died in Lavaca County, Texas. However, some individuals who died outside of Lavaca County are also included because Lavaca County was involved in their estates.

In compiling this index, every effort was made to locate as many individuals as possible in the county records and other existing records, but no index is foolproof. Researchers are reminded that they should always consult the actual record if they feel that either someone has been excluded or that the information in this index is incorrect or incomplete. Also the deaths of many individuals, such as women and/or children, are less likely to appear in any official document.

Caution should also be used when researchers are working with common surnames such as Brown and given names such as William and James. Every possible effort was made to distinguish between individuals with similar names, but it is possible that with a common given name and/or surname, more than on individual could be involved.

The complete Introduction to the records including coding used in the records is below. 

In county deed records, sheriff sales and tax lien sales involve land that is sold to satisfy a court judgment or to pay the back taxes owed to the country and or the state.

When creating indexes to deed records, traditionally the sale is in- dexed by the name of the seller and the name of the purchaser. However, in sheriff sales and tax lien sales, the recorded seller is not the actual owner of the property but instead is the county official responsible for holding the sale. In sheriff sales it is the sheriff or deputy and in tax lien sales the tax assessor collector. 

As a result, the owner of the property being sold is never included in the index.

The publication attempted to locate all the sheriffs sales and tax lien sales in Lavaca County between the years of 1846 and 1860. The index created for this publication includes the purchasers name and the name of the actual owner of the property being sold.

When you locate a sale of interest in this publication, you will need to read the entire deed to obtain all the available information. 

The deeds indexed in this publication are located at the Lavaca County Clerk’s office in Hallettsville, Texas. Their contact information is Lavaca County Clerk P.O. Box 326 Hallettsville, TX 77964-0326 (361) 798-3612.