The Baton Rouge Advocate newspaper reported, “Researchers with the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s New Acadia Project may have gotten one step closer to finding the remains of Beausoleil Broussard and the progenitors of Cajun culture.”
This winter while searching the original plot of the house of Broussard’s son, Amand, twenty UL-Lafayette anthropology students discovered a cemetery that they believe has “potential historical significance.”
In 1765, Beausoleil Broussard led a group of 193 Acadians from their home in Nova Scotia to New Orleans. The colonial government in Louisiana allowed the Acadian families to settle on the Teche Ridge along the Bayou Teche, in Attakapa territory.
Thirty-four of the original group died between the summer and winter of 1765, including Beausoleil Broussard. Rees and his group suspect yellow fever as the cause of those deaths.
In April, the students outlined their findings during a presentation at the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s Acadian Cultural Center.
The team is looking for the three original campgrounds where Beausoleil Broussard and his people settled.
The New Acadia Project is a long-term project encompassing archaeology, public history and cultural resource management planning.
Learn more about this project in The Advocate article, UL-Lafayette students on hunt for remains of early Acadiana settlers.
Thanks to the New Acadia Project for posting this article on their Facebook page.
