From Middle English auncestrie, from Old French ancesserie.

• (America) IPA: /ˈæn.sɛs.tɹi/

ancestry (plural ancestries)

1. The state of being ancestors
2. birth to a noble or high-ranking family, or to someone of honorable descent.
   • August 1 1713, Joseph Addison, The Guardian volume 123

     Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible.

3. A series of ancestors; the people from whom one is descended

   Synonyms: lineage

   I can trace my ancestry back to the 18th century.

• provenance

• ancestor
• ancestral

• French: ascendance
• German: Vorfahren
• Italian: ascendenza (it), stirpe
• Portuguese: ascendência
• Russian: родосло́вная
• Spanish: linaje, ascendencia, abolengo, alcurnia

• German: Vorväter, Ahnen
• Italian: avi, antenati, progenitori