Most of the families living in Anne Arundel County are related in some way, a local genealogist said on Feb. 8.

Author and historian Elinor Thompson works with the Broadneck African-American Heritage Project, which obtains restoration grants for places or groups with historical significance.

She has traced the family ancestry of the predominantly black population of the Broadneck Peninsula in an effort to record its African-American history.

During a talk at AACC during Black History Month, she said some have called her claims about the county’s heritage “noise,” but noted that she chalks that up to “historical ignorance.” In fact, she said, many families are offended by the suggestion that theirs might have unwanted relations or a history of incest.

Thompson said she has offered grants to local churches but have found them—specifically, the black ones—to be the most resistant to her claims.

“Often in the African-American communities and all communities, people are related,” she said. “The flack was, for me, that I see … the family connections [are the result of] incest. … We cannot stop that from happening because we are all in this room—we are all related.”

As she researched her 2015 book, “Nelson’s Rest,” Thompson discovered that Civil War soldier and former slave Nelson Stevens was buried at the Asbury Broadneck United Methodist Church. It turns out that after his death in the war, his family never received compensation.

Church records are often incomplete, Thompson said, so researchers for the Broadneck African-American Heritage Program cross-reference different sources to create a more complete record. These records are published into books like “Nelson’s Rest,” which catalogs the history of churches in the area.