Champlain claimed to be from Brouage in the title of his 1603 book and to be "Saintongeois" in the title of his second book (1613). He belonged to either a Protestant family, or a tolerant Roman Catholic one, since Brouage was most of the time a Catholic city in a Protestant region, and his Old Testament first name (Samuel) was not usually given to Catholic children. The exact location of his birth is thus also not known with certainty, but at the time of his birth his parents were living in Brouage.