Champlain was born to Antoine Champlain (also written "Anthoine Chappelain" in some records) and Marguerite Le Roy, in either Hiers-Brouage, or the port city of La Rochelle, in the French province of Aunis. He was born on or before 13 August 1574, according to a recent baptism record found by Jean-Marie Germe, French genealogist. Although in 1870, the Canadian Catholic priest Laverdière, in the first chapter of his "Œuvres de Champlain", accepted Pierre-Damien Rainguet's estimate and tried to justify it, his calculations were based on assumptions now believed, or proven, to be incorrect. Although Léopold Delayant (member, secretary, then president of "l'Académie des belles-lettres, sciences et arts de La Rochelle") wrote as early as 1867 that Rainguet's estimate was wrong, the books of Rainguet and Laverdière have had a significant influence. The 1567 date was carved on numerous monuments dedicated to Champlain and is widely regarded as accurate. In the first half of the 20th century, some authors disagreed, choosing 1570 or 1575 instead of 1567. In 1978 Jean Liebel published groundbreaking research about these estimates of Champlain's birth year and concluded, "Samuel Champlain was born about 1580 in Brouage, France." Liebel asserts that some authors, including the Catholic priests Rainguet and Laverdière, preferred years when Brouage was under Catholic control (which include 1567, 1570, and 1575).