The baptismal record of Samuel de Champlain found

Jean-Marie Germe, a genealogist from Poitou, discovered a baptismal record that would presumably be of Samuel de Champlain founder of Quebec. The document was found in the online archive of the pastoral register of former protestant temple Saint-Yon La Rochelle.

The historical document states that Samuel, baptized August 13, 1574 at Temple Saint-Yon La Rochelle, son of Antoine and Marguerite Chapeleau Le Roy, married around 1562 (La Rochelle, Saint-Yon).

Samuel de Champlain was beleived to be born in Brouage, Saintonge. Samuel de Champlain, according to his marriage record (late 1610), the son of the late Anthoine de Champlain, a captain in the Navy, and Marguerite Le Roy. It must be known that Samuel’s father has often signed documents as Chappelain and that surnames varies regularly at that time. The family owned houses in Brouage and La Rochelle which would explain the old belief.

Germe says: “Actually, I had accumulated all the clues over the past twenty years. This includes following the trail of Champlain’s uncle, the famous corsair William Allaine. He owned a house in La Rochelle, another in Brouage. His son died, he made his heir Samuel. It seems that Samuel’s parents lived in the house of Quatre Vents, Place des Petits-Bancs in La Rochelle, “explains Jean-Marie Germ. As of the Brouage house, the one everyone knows, it would become property of Champlain in 1601.

Here is the act in question: