BIRTH NAME

George Barth [whose full name at birth appears to have been Johann Georg Barth] was born in Russia. My preliminary research indicates that George Barth’s parents (and possibly his grandparents) were also born in Russia. I found immigration documents which support the movement of this family from Russia, through Hamburg, Germany and Liverpool, England to Portland [presumably Maine] in 1892.  Only the youngest brother, Paul, was born in Nebraska.

I found this Barth family on the 1900 and 1910 census for Culbertson, Nebraska. I also reviewed the census data for Palisade, Nebraska for the years 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920. No Barths appear in the Palisade Precinct during those years. This does not mean the family did not own land (or possibly a flour mill) there, merely that at the time of each census, their home of record was in the town of Culbertson. The two towns are 18 miles apart.

 

BIRTH LOCATION

“He was born on the 27th of September, 1879, and began his life with the name of George Barth. His actual birthplace is still a matter of speculation, as even his California family knew little of his early history. However, in his later years, he revealed that he had been born in Russia while his German-born parents were working there as millers. The young Barth family soon emigrated to the United States, settling in Hitchcock County, Nebraska. Here on the banks of the Stinkingwater Creek where his parents operated their own grinding mill, the family increased to nine children.”   SOURCE:  Art Kidwell, Ambush: The Story of Bill Keys, 1979, p 7. 

“George Barth was born September 27, 1879, in Palisade, Nebraska, on Stinking River Creek where it met the Frenchman River.”  SOURCE:  HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY, DESERT QUEEN RANCH, (William F. Keys Ranch). HABS No. CA-2347, 1993.

William F. Keys changed data about his birth location (and that of his parents) on each census and vital document:

(1) 1918 WWI Draft Registration card states that he was “native born;”

(2) 1920 Census states that he was born in Nebraska and his parents in Virginia;

(3) 1930 Census states that he was born in Nebraska and his parents were born in Nebraska;

(4) 1940 Census states that he was born in Nebraska.

There was a distinct prejudice in Nebraska between the Germans who emigrated from Germany, and those who emigrated from Russia. It was common for Germans from Russia to vehemently defend their German heritage, and to deny being “Russian.”

When one considers as well the intense anti-German and anti-Russian sentiment present in the United States throughout the early to mid-1900s it is not surprising that a person might want to disguise their German-Russian ancestry, and claim to be “native-born.”