# Who are your Ancesters **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 10, 2009, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323 "2009-06-10T13:54:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/21 "2009-06-12T18:05:36Z")
I’ve always thought of an ancestor as someone from whom you are directly descended – who is dead. When your grandparents die, they become ancestors. But if you have great grandparents living or even g-g grandparents living (it does happen), they are not considered your ancestors while still alive. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/22 "2009-06-12T21:01:19Z")
> [@Rucksinator](#): > > But, if your great-uncle is an important person, isn’t that only because your great-grandparents were important people? Not really. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/23 "2009-06-13T06:32:39Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > Not really. Well, then, obviously, I stand corrected. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2009, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/24 "2009-06-13T06:58:22Z")
NM, misunderstood the OP. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/25 "2009-06-14T06:53:42Z")
> [@Rigamarole](#): > > Objection: I usually hear the word used in the context of someone who has taken a position previously held by another (his or her predecessor). And that is what the word is supposed to mean, regardless of whether the predecessor is living or dead. Not sure what you mean unless you are referring to the use of predecessor as a synonym for ancestor, in which case that usage is archaic according to M-W. I repeat: That’s just me. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/26 "2009-06-14T13:36:32Z")
Lots of nitpickery going on here. **Direct ancestors** are those people who parented you or those who gave rise to you by parenting, in a direct line – strting with your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, and so on back. It is _usually_ not used to refer specifically to parents or grandparents, implying a greater range of descent than ‘second order’ (to use **Chronos** ’s mathematical analogy). **Collateral ancestors** are those from whom you are not directly descended, but who were in some way significant and who were in close degrees of consanguinity to direct ancestors. If some Governor of New Mexico was your great-great-grandmother’s cousin and you wish to claim kinship to him, he’s a collateral ancestor. I’d hesitate to put specific bounds on this, but the usage seems limited to at maximum half-first-cousins by marriage – your great-grandmother’s sister was the second wife of a man whose daughter by his first wife (whom she helped raise) married someone famous, who becomes a collateral ancestor at the extreme use of the claim. Nearly always, ‘collateral ancestor’ means someone with some degree of historifcal importance who is not in your direct line of ancestry but a member of whose extended family is. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2009, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323/27 "2009-06-14T16:20:01Z")
> [@](#): > > an·ces·tor (an′ses′tər; also, -səs-, -sis-) > > noun > > 1- any person from whom one is descended, esp. one earlier in a family line than a grandparent; forefather; forebear > 2- an early type of animal from which later kinds have evolved > 3-anything regarded as a precursor or forerunner of a later thing > 4-(Law) the deceased person from whom an estate has been inherited Seems clear enough to me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-your-ancesters/499323.md?page=1)