A Special Thanks to a cousin for sending me all of this information on the Barr family!
Our people in this line are of Scots-Irish Descent, good Psalm-singing Presbyterians down several generations. They were refugees in Northern Ireland from Scotland under the Queen Anne persecutions. They were Huguenots from France to Scotland, and were originally of Gaelic or Celtic origin, as the name BARRE (as originally spelled) implies.
Our ancestors came to this country in moderate circumstances. They were for the most part tillers of the soil. They settled in the great forests of Pennsylvania; put up their own log cabins and hewed out their own farms. They gathered about their tables and ate plain fare. They raised flax and wool and leather and made their own clothes and shoes. Without farm machinery, using scythes and flails and simple plows, they raised their crops and then found it difficult to market what they had raised by dint of hard toil.
They did not push themselves into public notice. Few became public officials or even entered the professions. Nevertheless they were patriotic and loyal to their country and their church. They served in the Indian Wars, in the American Revolution, The War of 1812, The War between the States, The 2nd World War, Korea and Viet Nam. Some gave their lives.
Robert BARR is the ancestor from which our line of the Barr family flows and it was his family that made the move from The Old World to the New, arriving here in 1790. He was born probably in the North of Ireland before 1725 and died in Barre Township, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, in 1808. He was buried in the "Old Indian Cemetery" located atop of the highest hill on the family farm one-half miles northeast of McAlevys Fort, now in Jackson Township.
While still in Ireland, about 1747, Robert married Mary WILLS. She was also born probably in the North of Ireland before 1730, and died in Barre Township some time after September 7, 1802, for she was still alive on that date when Robert wrote his will naming his son, Samuel, and his wife, Mary, executors of his estate, but before June 20, 1808, the date of letters testamentary, which note that "Samuel Barr surviving exr. of Robert Barr, decd." She is also buried in the "Old Indian Cemetery."
Since Robert Barr was a farmer, but did not own his own real property in Ireland, the prospects of locating the site where he lived are severely limited. Despite considerable research, a specific location for the Barrs in Ireland has not been identified but the Robert Barr family residence in Ireland prior to emigration in 1790 was probably in the Grange of Kildollagh, near Coleraine, County Londonderry. The reasons for this speculation are as follows,
The Reverend William Barr in his HISTORY OF THE BARR FAMILY stated that the Robert Barr family lived in Ireland near Coleraine (in County Londonderry, not County Donegal, as he incorrectly reported), prior to emigration in 1790. Although Rev. Barr gave no reference, we can assume his source of information was the diary of Samuel Barr, one of Robert Barr's sons. Although the actual origianl diary has been lost, the Rev. Barr quoted from it frequently, and so we at least have its flavor as well as some informative material. Robert Barr, another son, in his pension application for Revolutionary War service, gave his date and place of birth as 1748 in County Derry and another brother David in his application gave his as 1750 in County Antrim.