Five generations of Esensee first-born women gathered in Fredericksburg on Saturday, Feb. 8. First row left, Matriarch Betty Esensee, 91 and Gail Dvorak, 75, holding Ella Kate Vauter, 3 months; second row left, Hally Pehl, 54, and Emma Pehl, 24. Betty (McCoy) Esensee, from Milan, Tennessee, was the first born of Arthur and Odell (Williams) McCoy. She married Gilbert Esensee in 1950. Gilbert was the first of eight children to be born in Fredericksburg in 1925 to Emil and Frieda (Kanemeier) Esensee. He died in May 2019. Gail is Betty’s first born. She was born in Arizona in 1949, when Gilbert worked the pipeline. Hally Pehl, born in 1971 in Austin, was Gail’s first born. Emma Pehl was born in Fredericksburg in 2000. Emma grew up in Luckenbach and had her first child, Ella Kate in 2024. – Photo by Lasca Weiss