DNA Confirmed!

5/15/2023

Shirley Everett-Dicko

Dorothy Turner Everett, founder of Everett and Jones Barbeque

Tomorrow, May 16th is National BBQ Day! Perfect time to share this news. I took a DNA test and traced my enslaved fifth great-grandparents, Joe & Jenny McLean, to a small town in North Carolina called Barbecue. I kid you not, there is a small town in Harnett County, North Carolina, called Barbecue. Let me say that one more time for the people in the back. My fifth great-grandparents came from a town called Barbecue. I was born and raised for this...Legacy! Smoke runs through my blood. I was born to BARBEQUE! I am about to choke from all this smoke!!! These stunna shades are on to block out the haters. This girl is on fire!!!

Of course, I had to do some digging. I began by Googling Barbecue, North Carolina. Not only is there a Barbecue town, but there is also a Barbecue church, and the church sits on the corner of Barbecue Church Road…LOL. Turns out the Barbecue Presbyterian Church is older than the country. The Church was founded in 1757 by Scottish Highlanders from Scotland. The Church was named after the nearby Barbecue Creek. But check this out, there are no barbecue restaurants in Barbecue! They want you to bring your own barbecue to... wait for it…Barbecue Creek Park.

So, I kept digging and found out that the origins of the name Barbecue came from a famous Scottish explorer named Neill McNeill, who arrived in the Cape Fear River valley, North Carolina in 1739, according to historian Malcolm Fowler in his 1955 book “They Passed This Way.” The story goes those mists rising from a creek reminded Neill of barbecue fires smoking in the West Indies. Neill named the creek Barbecue Creek. It became a named landmark on early land grants. Neill is given credit for naming the township Barbecue. Guess what . . . 3% of my DNA is from Scotland.