Welcome
Ector County was created in 1887 from the western part of Tom Green County. Any records before 1887 will be found there. The county seat and largest town is Odessa - made famous by the novel (and movie), Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream (1990) by H. G. Bissinger. The county is named for Matthew Ector, a Confederate general in the American Civil War.Odessa was the home of former Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush but was orginally just a whistle-stop and cattle-shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway, set up in about 1881. It was incorporated after the discovery of oil in the area in 1929. Odessa is probably named for the city of Odesa in the Ukraine on the Black Sea, although it's entirely possible that it was named for a young woman.
The city of Ector is in Fannin County.