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| Joseph Broussard, known as "Beausoleil". A portrait by Herb Roe. |
Beyoncé and the Search Sisters are related! We share Acadian Ancestors: the Search Sisters eighth great Grandparents: Michel Thibodeau and Agnes Dugas (1683-1734). Of course a lot has happened since then.
I am amused and excited. Excited, with no one to tell but husband WW, he rolls his eyes and says… “Well if you go back far enough you are related to everyone”. Shrug. Genealogy bores the pants off of him.
Sigh.
The real news is not about Beyoncé. The remarkable connection I am excited about is with " Beausoleil". Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil is an Acadian legend. I have been reading about him for the past couple of weeks. He was a prime player in the Acadian resistance to the British occupation of Acadia. He was a guerrilla fighter and friend of the Mi'k Maq Indians. He was tough, resourceful, ruthless, with a talent for disappearing into the woods. He and his Indian allies terrorized the Brits and the New England Yankees. He had reason:The Brits burned his house and barns, destroyed his livestock and sent his family running to the woods.
The historian John Mack Faragher believes that his deeds as a resistance fighter are actually the amalgam of Joseph and his Brossard brothers, enhanced in the retelling. Beausolil married my 7th Great Aunt Agnes Thibaudeau 1706-1777. His legend rates his own Wikipedia entry.
After visiting Acadia, now called by the English names of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island I know that I had dozens of ancestors living in Port Royal (now called Annapolis Royal) , along the Riviere Dauphine (Annapolis River), Beaubassin (Amherst). Our Acadians were disappeared along with the French names. I have been intensely curious about what happened to these Acadians in our family tree during the Great Explusion or as it is said in French, the "Grand Derangement".
Reading the history of 17th and 18th century I learned some of the Broussards and Tibaudeas eventually landed in Louisiana. Uncovering the tale of Beausoleil I have details of what happened to some of our Thibodeaus along with one of the most amazing survival sagas of the era:
Source:
http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/brossard_joseph_3E.html
Another version here:
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