Warren Perrin wants to trace the footsteps of his ancestor, Joseph “Beausoleil” Broussard, who led some of the first Acadian settlers to ֱ. He has partnered with Dr. Mark Rees, an archeologist and anthropology professor at the University of ֱ at Lafayette, and others to enlist support for the New Acadia Project.
Perrin and Rees hope to find where the Acadians settled. They have a common heritage: Rees is a descendant of Alexandre Broussard, who was Joseph Broussard’s brother.
Perrin, a University alum, is a co-founder of the nonprofit Acadian Heritage and Culture Foundation. He’s also a member of the Famille Beausoleil Association, whose members are Broussard descendants.
In the mid-1700s, Joseph Broussard spent years leading an armed resistance against the British. In 1755, British soldiers expelled the Acadian families from their native Acadie, or Nova Scotia.
Joseph Broussard was captured and imprisoned by the British in 1760. When he was released four years later, he led a group of exiles, first to Haiti (then called Saint Domingue), then to ֱ.When they arrived in New Orleans in April 1765, they settled along the banks of the Bayou Teche, somewhere between New Iberia and St. Martinville.
Rees said the most likely place for them to have settled is Loreauville, a community in Iberia Parish. Broussard’s death was recorded Oct. 20, 1765, by a Catholic missionary who noted that he was buried near homesites.
“Although we don’t know the exact site, we do know that the Acadians set up three sites along the Teche. Initially, we’d be looking for high ground, areas that would likely have been chosen,” Rees said.“These sites are vulnerable to development, which is why it’s important to get the project under way as quickly as we can.”
The Acadian Heritage and Culture Foundation, the Famille Beausoleil Association and a steering committee for the New Acadia Project have raised about $10,000 of a $100,000 goal.
Rees hopes to obtain enough funding to hire a full-time archaeologist to lead a field crew and lab, provide stipends for three undergraduates and a graduate assistant, and to pay for supplies and travel. He’s applied for a three-year, $290,000 grant from the ֱ Board of Regents.
Adam Doucet, a senior majoring in anthropology, has already begun working on the project. He’s receiving course credit for conducting field interviews with Loreauville residents who may have information about gravesites. The recorded interviews will be added to the University’s Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore.
Rees said the New Acadia project could create opportunities for cultural tourism. “And it could tell us a great deal about the earliest Acadians in ֱ and how they lived.”