Greater than 13,000 individuals are recognized to share the identical Canadian ancestor as Beyoncé, in accordance WikiTree—however that is doubtless simply the tip of the iceberg.
By way of her mom, American singer-songwriter Beyoncé is the sixth great-granddaughter of Acadian resistance chief Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil, who led 193 refugees to Louisiana in 1765.
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Di Beausoleil and his French-speaking Acadian kinspeople are the ancestors of right now’s Cajuns; they settled in Louisiana previous to the Louisiana Buy, having been expelled by the British from the area of the present-day Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Right this moment, anybody in a position to hint a steady line of descent to Broussard will not be solely a distant relative of Beyoncé, but additionally a Canadian citizen by descent, since modifications to Canada’s Citizenship Act final December eradicated the generational restrict for inheriting Canadian citizenship.
Methods to discover out in case you’re associated to Beyoncé by means of Joseph Broussard
To see in case you too, like Beyoncé, have Canadian citizenship as a descendent of Broussard, you’ll be able to both rent an expert genealogist, or do it your self by conducting your individual analysis and mapping your ancestry backward.
Step 1: Choose a spot to save lots of your info
Begin by figuring out a single repository to doc your findings.
The repository will want to have the ability to doc a document for every ancestor, together with fields each for info particular to the ancestor, and their relationship(s) to different ancestors.
For many newbie genealogists, the first kinds of options will probably be basic function software program, or specialised software program for genealogical analysis.
Go-to examples of general-purpose software program could be spreadsheets equivalent to Excel or Google Sheets, or visually oriented software program equivalent to Visio, LucidChart, or Miro.
Specialised software program would come with Household Tree Maker, MacFamilyTree, and RootsMagic.
You may additionally need to think about capabilities for backing up your information and/or versioning your work to attenuate the chance of information loss.
Step 2: Map your family tree
A) Construct your ready-at-hand household tree
Finally, you wish to determine as a lot of your ancestors as attainable, way back to you’ll be able to, by mapping parent-child relationships from era to era.
Begin by creating data for all of the ancestors you’ll be able to determine with the data you’ve got prepared at hand, on the premise of your individual information, conversations with relations, and/or your individual and your loved ones’s information and data.
Usually, your place to begin could be with your individual dad and mom, adopted by your grandparents, then your great-grandparents, persevering with to work backward era by era by means of finishing the dad or mum fields of every ancestor.
For every ancestor you’ll be able to determine, doc as a lot as you’ll be able to, saving all the data in your recognized repository, and being certain to prepare the data successfully along with maintaining observe of your sources.
Right here’s an instance of what that may appear like for a fictionalized researcher, Jesse Williams, who began along with his mom:
Ancestor document ready by newbie genealogist
Core info
| Area | Entry | Supply(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full identify | Sarah Williams | Driver’s license | Alternate spellings embody “Sara”; goes by nickname “sally” |
| Beginning date | June 17, 1960 | Driver’s license | Untimely beginning at 35 weeks; beginning weight at 2.3 kg |
| Beginning location | Houston, Texas, United States | Beginning certificates | N/A |
| Citizenship | United States | Beginning certificates | N/A |
| Maiden identify | Sarah Ahlden | Beginning certificates | Has been misspelled as “Alden” and “Aldin” |
| Married names | Brown; Williams | Marriage certificates | N/A |
| Date of demise | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Location of demise | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Father or mother 1 | David Ahlden | Beginning certificates | Born on September 18, 1935; engineer; Died from mind most cancers in 1980 |
| Father or mother 2 | Julie Ahlden | Beginning certificates | Born on July 7, 1930; Secretary; residing (95 years of age) |
| First baby | Jesse Williams | Baptismal certificates | Born on December 9, 1986, in Houston, Texas |
| Second baby | Landry Williams | Baptismal certificates | Born on Might 19, 1988, in Houston Texas |
| First partner | Ronald Brown | Marriage certificates | Salesman, born on August 28, 1960 |
| Date of first marriage | October 22, 1981 | Marriage certificates | Married in St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, in Houston, Texas |
| Date of finish of first marriage | February 13, 1983 | Interview with Sarah Williams | Divorced because of insupportability |
| Second partner | Harrison Williams | Marriage certificates | Financial institution supervisor at JPMorgan Chase; born on January 1, 1962 |
| Date of second marriage | November 30, 1985 | Marriage certificates | Married on the First Houston Methodist Church |
| Date of finish of second marriage | March 29, 2010 | Interview with Sarah Williams | Harrison died in a boating accident. |
| Bio | Born pre-term to David and Julie Ahlden, Sarah grew up in Houston, Texas, the place she lived till 1991, then moved to Santa Ana, California along with her husband and two kids. Married twice, first to Ronald Brown, whom she divorced about 1.5 years later. She remarried to Harrison Williams, with whom she had two kids—Jesse and Landry Williams—and cohabited till his demise in 2010. Now 65, she nonetheless lives in Santa Ana. | Interview with Sarah Williams | N/A |
Supplementary info
| Area | Entry | Sources | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Bookkeeper; waitress; nurse | Interview with Sarah Williams | Workplaces included:
– Houston Heights Neighborhood Library – Tony’s – Houston Methodist Hospital |
| Cities lived in | Houston, Texas, U.S.; Santa Ana, California, U.S. | Interview with Sarah Williams; postcards + private letters | Traveled by way of interstate freeway system from Houston, Texas, to Santa Ana, California by way of in 1991 |
| Faith/denomination | Christianity – Methodism | Baptismal certificates; interview with Sarah Williams | Moved church buildings from the First Houston United Methodist Church in Texas to First United Methodist Church of Santa Ana in California |
| Navy service | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Different companions | Johnathon Strickland | Interview with Sarah Williams | 8 months in 1984 |
| Hair color | Blonde | Private commentary | N/A |
| Eye color | Blue | Private commentary | N/A |
| Race | Caucasian | Private commentary | N/A |
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Location of supply info
| Doc | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Beginning certificates | Dwelling submitting cupboard | Intend to photocopy |
| Marriage certificates – Ronald Brown | ? | Misplaced |
| Marriage certificates – Harrison Williams | Displayed on mantle in residence of Sarah Williams | Intend to photocopy |
| Divorce decree | Harris County Civil Courthouse | Intend to request copy from the Harris County District Clerk |
| Baptismal certificates | Dwelling submitting cupboard | Water broken, request copy from parish workplace |
| Household photobook | Storage facility | Unit 55 at Public Storage, Santa Ana |
| Driver’s licence | In possession of Sarah Williams | Intend to photocopy |
| Further paperwork | Dwelling submitting cupboard | Submit playing cards, private letters |
A very powerful fields are these for fogeys, kids, and spouses, as these are the core necessities wanted to construct the household tree documenting your ancestry.
That mentioned, it is best to purpose to gather on every ancestor as a lot private biographical and household info as you presumably can.
Identifiable details about any given ancestor will usually be required to verify {that a} given piece of data in a supply pertains to that specific ancestor moderately than to another particular person, and can usually be essential for validating the core parent-child relationships.
To make sure you observe your work successfully, don’t go away clean fields.
If one thing isn’t related, replace the sector with “N/A.”
If one thing is unknown, replace the sector with a “?” or one other placeholder indicating that along with your present information, you have no idea what info, if any, should go in that discipline.
B) Broaden your tree in the hunt for Broussard’s descendants
After you’ve constructed out data for all of the ancestors you could possibly determine on the premise of what you had prepared at hand, you’ll be left with a collection of query marks for the dad or mum relationships of the furthest-back ancestors: maybe these are your great-great grandparents, or great-great-great grandparents, whose names you have no idea.
With the purpose of figuring out the dad and mom of your oldest recognized ancestors, you’ll be able to seek the advice of on-line family tree and household historical past platforms to aim to determine the members of the sooner era.
Begin by constructing a listing of sources you could seek the advice of. Examples would come with the next:
Order the sources by stage of precedence, then work by means of every supply one after the other, inputting recognized details about your present ancestors to aim to determine associated ancestor data within the database.
You’ll be able to count on to come across data of ancestors that you’ve got already finished analysis on, and you may additionally encounter data of ancestors you haven’t discovered of earlier than.
For every related ancestor document you discover, replace your individual repository with the data, whether or not which means including a brand new ancestor and filling in as many fields as attainable for that new document, or just updating an present ancestor.
Make sure to doc the right dad or mum, baby, and partner relationships, which can require updating previous data whenever you add a brand new document.
For each piece of data, be sure to notice the supply, and when related, flag any discrepancies in info between conflicting sources.
Every time you seek the advice of an present ancestor document, replace your present documentation, making any corrections or additions which might be applicable, being certain to notice the supply of any info and flag any discrepancies between sources.
Proceed to work backward, era by era, so far as you’ll be able to, to see if finally as soon as of the ancestors added to the highest of your loved ones tree occurs to be certainly one of Broussard’s recognized descendants.
As a boon to newbie genealogists, Broussard’s household line has been recorded extensively on databases equivalent to Geneat, WikiTree, and Geni, and FamilySearch.
For those who persevere along with your analysis, finally you’ll find yourself at certainly one of three attainable outcomes:
- You hit Broussard ancestry: You’ll join your loved ones tree to an ancestor who is thought to be certainly one of Broussard’s descents, indicating your relation to Beyoncé and your Canadian heritage.
- You “miss” Broussard ancestry: You’ll lengthen your loved ones tree a number of generations elder to the youngest well-mapped era of Broussard’s descendants. The shortage of overlap of your loved ones tree with Broussard’s descendants would counsel that you simply’re unlikely to be associated to Broussard, except some particular hole within the obtainable sources overlooked a number of siblings inside the mapped out generations.
- You hit a wall: Your prime stage of ancestors has all “?” for his or her dad or mum relationships, and there are not any additional sources you’ll be able to seek the advice of to aim to fill in these blanks.
Even in case you’re not associated to Beyoncé by means of Broussard, you would possibly encounter a special Canadian ancestral line.
If even certainly one of your ancestors had Canadian citizenship on the time that their baby, from whom you descend, was born, you then your self have the proper to Canadian citizenship, offered you have been born previous to December 15, 2025.
For those who can receive copies of the required official paperwork proving the Canadian citizenship of your ancestor and your steady line of descent, you’ll be able to apply for a proof of Canadian citizenship certificates.
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Making use of for a proof of citizenship certificates
In a proof of citizenship utility, you could embody documentary proof of your steady line of descent from a Canadian ancestor—equivalent to beginning certificates, baptismal data, and marriage licenses.
When you have efficiently recognized a Canadian ancestor, you’ll be able to start gathering the required official paperwork to incorporate in your utility, which is able to typically require reaching out to the related Canadian provincial important statistics workplace(s) and/or archive(s).
As a result of a lot of Broussard’s kids hail from Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, in case you’re Canadian as a distant relative of Beyoncé, your finest wager will doubtless be the Nova Scotia Archives or the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick for historic paperwork antedating the Thirties.
Each provincial archives have been experiencing surges in demand from Individuals looking for supporting paperwork, so they might take further time to answer.
With compliant copies of the required official paperwork in hand, together with compliant skilled images, you’ll have many of the further documentation wanted on prime of the applying type itself and proof of cost.
Those that submit their functions right now, as of the time of writing, can count on to have their utility processed inside 12 months, up from 5 months as of July 2025.
As of the time of this writing, there are 70,400 people within the citizenship certificates utility queue—a lot of them Individuals looking for backup passports.
As soon as your citizenship certificates has been issued, it’s possible you’ll apply for a Canadian passport. Present passport processing occasions vary from 10–20 days, and a money-back assure applies if processing will not be accomplished inside 30 days.
Implications of U.S.-Canadian twin citizenship
This certificates supplies official recognition that an American is, in reality, a U.S.-Canadian twin citizen below Canadian regulation on the premise of their ancestry.
These with U.S.-Canadian twin citizenship are afforded the complete rights and privileges of citizenship in each nations.
They’ll enter, reside, work and/or research in Canada freely, vote in Canadian elections, and may entry healthcare and social providers in the event that they set up residency in Canada.
A Canadian passport presents visa-free journey to extra international locations than the U.S. passport and may permit holders aged 18–35 to reside and work in 36 international locations (e.g., Australia, Greece, Switzerland, and Taiwan), for as much as two years, by means of youth mobility applications.
Buying proof of Canadian citizenship or acquiring a Canadian passport doesn’t create any further Canadian tax obligations for U.S. residents. In contrast to the USA, Canada doesn’t apply a worldwide tax on its residents.
Twin U.S-Canadian residents Canadian taxes in the event that they selected to ascertain residency in Canada, or produce other monetary ties to Canada, equivalent to possession of actual property, companies, or different property positioned in Canada.
Individuals who develop monetary ties to Canada can benefit from the U.S.-Canada tax treaty, which might serve to supply reduction from double taxation.
About Joseph Broussard
Joseph Broussard is remembered as one of many foremost symbols of Acadian resistance and survival through the period of British colonial growth in eighteenth-century North America.
He was born in 1702 within the metropolis of Port-Royal in Acadia, French colonial territory encompassing the areas of the present-day Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
Broussard’s life was formed by this era of imperial warfare and political instability, together with the displacement of French-speaking Acadian settlers from British territories inside North America.
As British authorities tightened management over Acadia following its conquest, Broussard emerged as a distinguished militia commander who resisted British navy campaigns and defended Acadian settlements. Working alongside Mi’kmaq allies, he organized navy operations geared toward defending Acadian civilians and preserving their autonomy.
His resistance grew to become notably vital through the Nice Expulsion of 1755, when hundreds of Acadians have been forcibly deported from present-day Nova Scotia and surrounding areas. Following years of battle and imprisonment, Broussard performed a decisive position in main almost 200 Acadian refugees to the Attakapas area of Louisiana in 1765. He died that very same yr, after contracting yellow fever.
This organized migration contributed on to the formation of the Cajun communities that may later outline southern Louisiana’s cultural panorama. Right this moment, there are millions of Individuals throughout the U.S. who can lay declare to Canadian citizenship by means of Broussard.
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