Bar, now known as Bar-le-Duc, is in the département of Meuse; formerly Upper Lorraine. In Carolingian times it was ruled by a branch of the dukes of Lorraine (Lotharingia); this family died out with Duke Frederick III (in 1033), whose sister married the founder of the Bar dynasty treated here (see below).

The earliest known ancestor is Thibaut of Bar, who was living in the town about 1000, and had a wife named Sconehilde. Their son Ludwig was Count of Mousson (a nearby fortress town on the Moselle). He married a daughter of the lord of nearby Lutzelburg, and had a son, Richwin, Count of Mousson; he married Hildegarde of Egisheim (daughter of Hugo, Graf im Nordgau and his wife Heilwig von Dagsburg, who were also the parents of Pope Leo IX) and was living in 1028. Their son Count Ludwig II (c1019-c1075) was known as "Graf von Mömpelgard, im Altkirch und Pfirt" (Mömpelgard is modern Montbéliard); he married in 1037 Sophie (died 1093), sister of Frederick III of Lorraine (above).

This marriage raised the family to the first rank in the Carolingian world. We know of seven children: Count Dietrich II (see below); Bruno; Ludwig (Seigneur de Commercy), about whom little is known; Friedrich, Margrave of Susa and ancestor of the later counts of Lutzelburg (he was a major power in German politics, and inherited Susa in Italy from his wife's family); Sophie, married Count Folmar von Froburg; Beatrix (died 1092), married Berchtold I "the Bearded" von Zähringen (ancestor of the Margraves of Baden); and Mathilde, married Count Hugo von Dagsburg.

The eldest son, Count Dietrich II of Bar, Mömpelgard, Verdun, etc (also called Thierry; c1045-1105), married about 1065 Ermentrude, daughter of Guillaume I "the Great," Count Palatine of Burgundy. Their eldest son Friedrich I von Mömpelgard, Altkirch und Pfirt, etc (died 1160) married Petrissa von Zähringen, but she died childless; he then married Stephanie de Vaudemont and had at least one son: Count Ludwig (died 1190), who was the ancestor of several generations of Counts of Mömpelgard - but not our ancestors, as far as I can tell.

Friedrich I's younger brother Reinald "the One-Eyed" (c1106-1149) became Count of Bar (as it was considered less important than Mömpelgard) and also of Mousson. he was involved in the dispute between Emperor Henry V and Pope Pascal II, and was held hostage in his own castle for a time by the Emperor. He took part in the Second Crusade and died on shipboard, on the way home. He married Gisela de Vaudémont (c1090-c1141, daughter of Gerard, comte de Vaudémont & his wife Helvidis [Helwigis] von Egisheim) and had at least seven children: Hugo (died young); Count Reinald II (see below); Dietrich, Bishop of Metz (1163, died 1171); Agnes, married Count Albert I de Chiny; Clementia, married Renaud II de Clermont and Thibaut de Crépy, Sire de Nanteuil-le-Haudouin; a daughter who married Konrad I, Wildgraf von Kyrburg (their daughter Mathilda, who married Manasses III de Rethel, is our ancestor); and Stephanie, who married Hugues III de Broyes et de Chateauvilain and is our ancestor via de Rethel, de Broyes and Enghien, to Jacquetta of Luxembourg.

Count Reinald II of Bar (c1115-1170) married Agnes de Blois, Dame de Ligny (1138-1207, daughter of Thibaut IV, Comte de Blois and Mathilda of Sponheim), by whom he was the father of four sons: Reinald, Bishop of Chartres, and Hugo, a priest; Count Henry I of Bar (1158-1190, excommunicated for trying to reclaim the countship of Verdun from its bishop; killed in the Third Crusade in October 1190; no children); and Theobald or Thibaut I, comte de Bar et Mousson (c1159-1214), who married Laurette van Looz (divorced from Gilles, comte de Duras; daughter of Louis I Graf van Looz en Rieneck, Stadtgraf von Mainz and his wife Agnes von Metz) by whom he had one daughter Agnes, who married Frederick II of Lorraine (he later claimed the county of Bar; they are not our ancestors as far as I know). Thibaut I married secondly Ermesinde, daughter of Milon de Brienne, by whom he had three more children: Count Henry II (see below); Agnes, married Hugh de Châtillon, comte de St-Pol, who is our ancestor by a different wife; and Margaret, married Heinrich III of Salm and Henri de Dampierre. Thibault I's third wife was Ermesinde of Luxembourg, daughter of Count Henry I "the Blind" of Namur; they had three daughters and a son who died young (so Luxembourg went to the descendants of Ermesinde's second husband, Walram IV of Limburg - see Luxembourg). Of the three daughters, one died young; Elizabeth married Walram of Limburg, not the same as Walram IV, but his son by another marriage; and Margaret, who married Hugh III of Vaudémont, her cousin - I cannot find a descent from this third marriage.

Count Henry II of Bar (1190-1239, killed in the Crusades at Gaza) married Philippa of Dreux (1192-1242), daughter of Robert II, comte de Dreux et de Braine (son of King Louis VI, see Capet) by Yolande de Coucy. They had seven children: Count Theobald or Thibaut II (see below); Henry, Reinald and Isabelle, who had no children; Erard, who had a son but no grandchildren; Joanna (c1225-1299, married twice; descendants by second husband Ludwig von Looz und Chiny); and our ancestor Margaret (1220-1281), who married Count Henri II "the Blond" of Luxembourg (see Luxembourg for descendants).

Count Thibaut II of Bar (died 1291) has many descendants, via Bar, Montferrat, Spain, Savoy, etc, but as far as I can tell he is not our ancestor.