Good afternoon Meloneyrose;

Sorry, but I don't have anything on the Barre family except that the spelling was originally Old Normandy beginning around 900 AD as de La Barre. In France it was spelled as Des Barres and even later in England it was recorded as Barres as well as Barrs. Caution though, many believe the surname Barr is also of our lineage, but it is not. Barr is a Scottish surname and the Scots and English were sworn and deadly enemies, so there was no intermixing until late in the past century...but Barr is not a western European version of our Barre, Barres and Barrs lineage. There are other spellings but most were misspelled by church scribes such as our earliest known ancestor in England which was spelled a Thomas Bares, but the executor of his Last Will and Testament was his son, Robert Barrs.

I have found only three shires in England that had considerable Barres or Barrs from the Medieval period of the 1400 and 1500s and those regions are Lancashire, Leicestershire and next door Warwickshire. I have traced my Barrs family back to Warwickshire in the late 1400s or early 1500s.

Sorry I could not be of further help.

Al Barrs