As of New Year's Day 2002, the documentary links between Baril relatives in France and North American are still missing.
Jean Baril's indentured labour contract and his first marriage contract were tragically lost when fire destroyed the early colonial archives in Québec city. With them went the only hope in North America of accurately identifying his parents and parish of origin in France.
However, thanks to intensive franco-canadian research efforts sponsored by the International Insitute of Notaries, we hope that documents will surface in France, most likely from the Admiralty Archives in Rochefort, especially the indenture contract and ship's manifests that would have been required for Jean to obtain passage across the Atlantic.
You can therefore safely discount irresponsible claims on some Web pages that give a date and place of Jean's birth. The claims are baseless and unprofessional.
If you do come across any specific claim that peeks your interest, please feel free to ask us for an evaluation.