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The beginning of the German-Texan Association
(See also Foundation of GTA).

When touring Germany in 1991 the Vogel family also paid a visit to the Westerwald to get to know their ancestors' home region. During the celebrations of the Week of the Holy Cross run in Montabaur by the Diocese of Limburg they met upon Inge and Gerhard Wick from Niederelbert.
George Vogel was hoping with all his heart to find some relations of his in Niederelbert for his great-great grandfather Johann Vogel and all the members of his family had left their home country in the course of the great emigration wave of 1845 organized by the Mainzer Adelsverein and gone to Texas. Many other Westerwald people had done so, too. Some families consisted of 8 to 10 members. For most of them it was the only chance of leaving behind poverty and need.
Unfortunately we could not find any relations of the Vogel's. The only things we did procure were copies, of documents in the diocese archive of Limburg.
Mayor Willi Bode welcomed the guests in the village hall of Niederelbert and described the development of the village. Bidding him farewell the guests heartily invited him to come and have a look at "the new home of the Westerwald people in Texas".
Since that time we have been studying the history the emigration that has fascinated us ever since.
In September 1992: our first visit to Fredericksburg. We were very impressed by the overwhelming hospitality. Again and again we met Texans with the names of Knopp, Meurer, Metzger, Weinheimer etc. who told us that their forefathers had come from Heiligenroth, Holler, Horressen, Kadenbach, Neuhäusel and Niederelbert. For what we had done we were awarded the honorary citizenship of Fredericksburg by mayor Linda Langerhans.

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