Joseph  BROUSSARD dit BEAUSOLEIL

Joseph dit Beausoleil, born in c1702, married Agnès Thibodeau, younger
Sister: of
Brother: Alexandre's wife, at Annapolis Royal in September 1725. They followed Alexandre and Marguerite to Chepoudy and Petitcoudiac, preferring to settle in territory controlled by France. Along with older
Brother: Alexandre, Joseph was a leader of Acadian partisans who fought against the British in Nova Scotia during and after King George's War.

After yet another war erupted between Britain and France in 1754, the Acadians were again caught in the middle of it. When British and New England forces attacked Fort Beauséjour at Chignecto in June 1755, Broussards were among the area Acadians who were serving in the fort as militia, though they may have left the fort a few days before it surrendered on June 16. Governor Lawrence was so incensed to find so-called French Neutrals fighting with French regulars at Beauséjour that he ordered his officers to deport the Chignecto Acadians to the southernmost British colonies on the Atlantic seaboard...

Before the deportation ships arrived at Chignecto, some of the Acadians being held at forts Cumberland (formerly Beauséjour) and Lawrence managed to escape, Joseph dit Beausoleil among them. He rejoined his wife and younger children at Petitcoudiac, and they headed into the wilderness north of their home, not only hiding from the British patrols sent out to capture them but also