Webster's English Dictionary

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ancestry

an.ces.try \'an-.ses-tre-\ n 1: line of descent : LINEAGE; specif : 
   honorable, noble, or  aristocratic descent 2: persons initiating or 
   comprising a line of descent : ANCESTORS  collectively or their quality or 
   character. ANCESTRY stresses the image of a family tree branching and 
   ramifying as it ascends {only brothers and sisters have exactly the same 
   ancestry} LINEAGE stresses descent in line of generation, and may equal the 
   broadest sense of family by designating all the descendants of a single 
   progenitor; PEDIGREE implies known and recorded and usu. notable or 
   distinguished ancestry SYN syn ANCESTRY, LINEAGE, PEDIGREE mean one's 
   progenitors