Victoria Winters was the daughter of Elizabeth Collins. This should be beyond debate. Her father (Jamison Joseph Collins) must have made her give up the baby. It was out-of-wedlock, remember, in the 1940s. I'm sure Elizabeth had no choice!
The show pointed to Mr. Handscomb as the father. I think he was a butler, or butler-like character (The butler did it!). So, that was very "naughty" -- out-of-wedlock, and with the "help."
The direction the show might have taken was that Burke, Laura and Roger's car killed Handscomb (in 1956). Handscomb was returning to Collinsport. He talked to Sam, first, then Roger saw him -- and, crash!
Betty's "portrait" was really done up from a photo of Alexandra, of course. "Betty" could be a nickname for "Elizabeth," but there are other soap-opera like explainations for the "Betty" picture.
I think it was decided (wisely) that the character of Victoria Winters was more interesting as a gothic lass who doesn't know who she is... and is "searching for her identity." This added to the "drifting, lost soul" quality of the character as the series went on -- the trips Vicki took to the 1790s were better because Vicki had no idea who she was or where she belonged.
If you remember, Jebez Hawkes "killed" Vicki... so this opens up the possibility that Vicki was actually protected from the Leviathans (if they wanted a Collins girl?). Still, we can't assume Liz sent Vicki away -- it mustive been Jamison. She probably had a lot of guilt about it... blamed herself, and might have had a difficult time with the admission... Oh well, I'll stop now, repeating myself.
PS You must READ that book "DARK SHADOWS: DREAMS OF THE DARK" -- it is GREAT. It is very, very true to the show. There is a great scene between Liz and Vicki that answers all the questions about their relationship. It makes perfect sense. READ "DREAMS OF THE DARK"
By the way, anybody know why it says I'm a Llama? Why couldn't it be a Unicorn, or shoething more DS-like?