We have been perusing your message and wonder if you are aware of the Barbe Family Genealogy done by Waverly Barbe of Tuscaloosa, Ala., and distributed in about 1980? Our forefather was Jacob Barbe as well, and was found to have been French as Germany and France were at war at that time and the land passed back and forth between them.
Both spellings BARB and BARBE (which is French) are used synonymously in this anthology. In New orleans they even have families who use the accent yet over the "e".
Possibly you could find this book in a genealogical library or on the internet in bookstore areas.
You would probably find yourself in it.
For any further info, just holler.
Dick and Carol Barbe Loudon, Tn.