Ancestry


family or descent; lineage.
honorable or distinguished descent:
famous by title and ancestry.
a series of :
His ancestry settled Utah.
the inception or origin of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.
the history or developmental process of a phenomenon, object, idea, or style.
Contemporary Examples

Oddly, the Times ignored a big divorce story for today’s front page, choosing the tale of William’s Indian ancestry instead.
Prince William’s Indian Heritage Tom Sykes June 13, 2013

That meant the Clovis child should have been of European ancestry.
Incontrovertible Evidence Proves the First Americans Came From Asia Doug Peacock March 26, 2014

Once we were there and got used to it, being there in the soil and embracing your ancestry was amazing.
Zoe Saldana Kicks Ass Marlow Stern August 23, 2011

But for anyone curious enough to ask, she cited a mixed Native American ancestry.
American Gypsies Are a Persecuted Minority That Is Starting to Fight Back Nina Strochlic December 21, 2013

Through an Internet ancestry site, he met a cousin from New Jersey who asked him if he knew his mother was adopted.
The Hidden Jews Rachel Lehmann-Haupt June 15, 2009

Historical Examples

But they were good enough for the occasion and their very form was sacred by ancestry.
Ande Trembath Matthew Stanley Kemp

Still, for all this irritating abuse Vulp had only himself and his ancestry to blame.
Creatures of the Night Alfred W. Rees

In regard to their ancestry it is very difficult to trace back to the original stock from which they came.
Modern Persia Mooshie G. Daniel

I envy you what smacks of a race, a name, an ancestry, a lineage.
Lord Kilgobbin Charles Lever

His father was a man of unmingled African extraction and his mother a white woman of respectable New England ancestry.
The History of the Negro Church Carter Godwin Woodson

noun (pl) -tries
lineage or descent, esp when ancient, noble, or distinguished
ancestors collectively
n.

early 14c., from Old French ancesserie “ancestry, ancestors, forefathers,” from ancestre (see ancestor); spelling modified in English by influence of ancestor.

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