Here’s how Beyonce is related to Canadian hero Joseph Broussard

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Beyonce might be singing about Texas, but the Grammy-award winning artist has Acadian roots.

It turns out, she’s related to Acadian resistance leader Joseph Beausoleil Broussard, who helped Acadians evade deportation from the region that is now Atlantic Canada in the mid-18th century.

This week in New Brunswick, Moncton city council voted to honour Broussard with a historic plaque, expected to be displayed at Bore Park. The idea to commemorate Broussard’s contributions stemmed from experts at Nation Prospère, a group dedicated to preserving Acadian heritage and culture in Canada. The group determined he should be honoured due to his legacy as a leader during the Great Upheaval. It is not known when the plaque will be erected. The vote is expected to be ratified at a regular meeting of council, the Telegraph-Journal reported.

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Broussard, also known as Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil, was designated a national historic person in 2022. The designation was confirmed a year later on Aug. 15, which is National Acadian Day.

How is Beyonce related to Broussard?

Beyonce has included lyrics about her southern roots in her music and her latest album has even crossed over from pop to country. It turns out that her connection to the South actually began in Canada, with Broussard.

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Beyonce is related to Broussard on her mother’s side. He is Beyonce’s sixth great-grandparent, according to French-Canadian genealogist Kim Kujawski.

Although Broussard was born in Acadia, he moved to Louisiana in 1765. The rest of Beyonce’s ancestors on that side of her family remained in Louisiana until her maternal grandparents moved to Texas.

Agnès Derouen, Beyonce’s grandmother, married Lumis Albert Beyincé — which is where her unique name comes from. The singer’s parents, Celestine “Tina” Beyonce and Matthew Knowles, were married in 1980 and later divorced.

In an interview with In Style, Tina explained that her last name was different than the rest of her family because hospital staff had difficulty spelling it. They wrote it down incorrectly on her birth certificate, she said, and she never changed it back.

Who was Joseph Beausoleil Broussard?

Broussard was born in 1702 in Port Royal, in what is now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, according to Kujawski. Throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, fighting between the British and French escalated in Acadian territory.

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Eventually, the rising tension led to the Great Upheaval in 1755, when Acadians were forcefully removed by British troops and deported.

Broussard was a leader in the Acadian resistance, helping locals flee. He worked with Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik First Nations fighters against the British leading up to the Seven Years’ War, beginning in 1756.

During the war, he “conducted raids against settlements, troops, and military posts, commanded a privateer, and avidly defended his compatriots, helping them to escape deportation and inspiring them to resist,” according to Parks Canada.

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He was imprisoned twice — even escaping the first time — after being deemed an outlaw by the British for refusing to recognize their authority and for helping the French wage war.

When the Seven Years’ War ended in 1763, Broussard did not return home. The conditions by the British were unacceptable to him, Parks Canada said. Instead, he travelled to what is now Haiti, formerly the French colony of Saint-Domingue.

In 1765, he left the Caribbean with other Acadians, settling in Louisiana.

“Broussard was appointed militia captain of the Acadians in the region of the Attakapas, which included the parishes of Saint-Landry, Saint-Martin and Lafayette,” wrote Kujawski.

“He died in October of that year and was buried at Beausoleil, near present-day Broussard.”

What is Acadia?

Acadia was the term used in the 17th century to describe the region that currently makes up the maritime provinces in Canada. It came from the word “Arcadia” — referring to the beauty of the trees — first used to describe the Atlantic coast in North America by Italian explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano. He was sent on behalf of France in the 1500s, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.

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French settlers arrived in the area in 1604, living alongside Indigenous tribes.

Over time, the settlers developed their own culture and customs, referring to themselves as Acadians, “which distinguished them from newer French settlers” in North America, Historica Canada explains in a video posted on YouTube.

Acadian communities “largely extend from northern and eastern New Brunswick to the two far ends of Nova Scotia, and the Evangeline region of Prince Edward Island,” says The Canadian Encyclopedia.

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