Across the pond -- strategies???

Hi. I have several lines with the original immigrant arriving in Nova Scotia or PEI from France. I know the general localities that these ancestors came from in France, but there are so many similar first names that I cannot easily link them to their French families. In one small area I have already discovered 170 individuals with the same surname, and I have only gotten through half of the microfilm reel of the local church records. Using the birth/baptism year has helped to pare down the possibilities. What strategies do you employ to link families together between the New World and the Old when there is no indication of parental names in anything you have uncovered on the western side of the Atlantic?

I would use what Elizabeth Shown Mills calls the "FAN club" approach. Research the friends, neighbors, and associates. Perhaps some of these people were closely related to them or lived near them in Europe. If there are passenger arrival records, look at the names of the people who came with them. They could be from the same communities. She has one of those Quick Sheets on the FAN Principle that you can purchase to help you maximize your efforts in that area.