ancestry
Your ancestry is the family, ethnic, or national background of the people you come from.
The line of people from whom a person, family, or group is descended, especially considered as family history, nationality, or ethnicity.
Genetic ancestry is what a person's DNA suggests about where their ancestors came from.
The inherited genetic background that connects a person or organism to particular ancestral populations or geographic origins.
In biology, ancestry is the chain of earlier life forms from which a species developed.
The line of earlier organisms or species from which a species, group, or organism evolved.
The ancestry of something can mean the earlier things it developed from.
The earlier forms, sources, or predecessors from which something nonliving, such as an idea, language, product, or institution, developed.
- Base: ancestry
- Plural: ancestries, ancestry
ancestry test
1DNA origins test
An ancestry test is a DNA test that tries to show where your ancestors came from.
- He took an ancestry test after finding old family letters in the attic.
- The ancestry test suggested that her family had roots in several regions.
- Ancestry tests can be interesting, but the results may change as databases grow.
- She took an ancestry test.
- The ancestry test showed my family origins.
common ancestry
1shared line of descent
Common ancestry means that two or more people, groups, or species come from the same earlier ancestor.
- DNA evidence supports the common ancestry of humans and other primates.
- The two families discovered common ancestry through old marriage records.
- Similar bone structures can be evidence of common ancestry among species.
- The cousins share common ancestry.
- Scientists found evidence of common ancestry.
mixed ancestry
1multiple ethnic origins
A person of mixed ancestry has ancestors from different ethnic or national groups.
- She grew up in a family of mixed ancestry and spoke three languages at home.
- The report included a section on the experiences of people of mixed ancestry.
- He described himself as being of mixed European and Caribbean ancestry.
- He is of mixed ancestry.
- Many families have mixed ancestry.
of [nationality/ethnicity] ancestry
1having particular origins
Use this phrase to say what national or ethnic background someone's ancestors had.
- Many residents of the city are of Italian ancestry.
- She is of Vietnamese ancestry but was born and raised in Canada.
- The survey asked whether participants were of Indigenous ancestry.
- He is of Greek ancestry.
- My friend is of Chinese ancestry.
trace one's ancestry
1research family origins
To trace your ancestry is to find out who your ancestors were and where they came from.
- She traced her ancestry back to a small village in Scotland.
- The family used census records to trace their ancestry over six generations.
- Many people now trace their ancestry using both documents and DNA tests.
- I want to trace my ancestry.
- They traced their ancestry to Poland.