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==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] ancestre, from Anglo-French, from [[Latin]] antecessor predecessor, from antecedere to go before, from ante- + cedere to go
*Date: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Century 13th century]
==Definitions==
*1 a : one from whom a [[person]] is descended and who is usually more remote in the line of [[descent]] than a grandparent
:b : forefather
*2 : forerunner, prototype
*3 : a progenitor of a more recent or existing species or [[group]]
==Description==
An '''ancestor''' is a [[parent]] or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth).
Two [[individuals]] have a genetic [[relationship]] if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. In [[evolution]]ary [[theory]], species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common [[descent]]. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other [[organisms]] capable of horizontal gene transfer.
Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before him and a total of about 2g+1 ancestors in the g generations before him. In [[practice]], however, it is clear that the vast majority of ancestors of [[humans]] (and indeed any other species) are multiply related (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse Pedigree collapse]). Consider n = 40: the human species is more than 40 [[generation]]s old, yet the number 240, approximately 1012 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans that have ever lived.
Ignoring the possibility of other inter-[[relationships]] (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same [[assumption]], any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this [[theoretical]] [[number]] increases past the estimated total [[population]] of the world in around [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_AD AD 1000]. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one's autosomal [[DNA]] is concerned: this excludes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-Chromosome Y-chromosomal DNA] and mitochondrial DNA.)
Some [[cultures]] confer [[reverence]] to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more [[youth]]-oriented cultural [[contexts]] display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek [[providence]] from their deceased ancestors; this [[practice]] is sometimes known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestor_worship ancestor worship].
==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] ancestre, from Anglo-French, from [[Latin]] antecessor predecessor, from antecedere to go before, from ante- + cedere to go
*Date: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Century 13th century]
==Definitions==
*1 a : one from whom a [[person]] is descended and who is usually more remote in the line of [[descent]] than a grandparent
:b : forefather
*2 : forerunner, prototype
*3 : a progenitor of a more recent or existing species or [[group]]
==Description==
An '''ancestor''' is a [[parent]] or (recursively) the parent of an ancestor (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent, and so forth).
Two [[individuals]] have a genetic [[relationship]] if one is the ancestor of the other, or if they share a common ancestor. In [[evolution]]ary [[theory]], species which share an evolutionary ancestor are said to be of common [[descent]]. However, this concept of ancestry does not apply to some bacteria and other [[organisms]] capable of horizontal gene transfer.
Assuming that all of an individual's ancestors are otherwise unrelated to each other, that individual has 2n ancestors in the nth generation before him and a total of about 2g+1 ancestors in the g generations before him. In [[practice]], however, it is clear that the vast majority of ancestors of [[humans]] (and indeed any other species) are multiply related (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedigree_collapse Pedigree collapse]). Consider n = 40: the human species is more than 40 [[generation]]s old, yet the number 240, approximately 1012 or one trillion, dwarfs the number of humans that have ever lived.
Ignoring the possibility of other inter-[[relationships]] (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same [[assumption]], any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this [[theoretical]] [[number]] increases past the estimated total [[population]] of the world in around [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_AD AD 1000]. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one's autosomal [[DNA]] is concerned: this excludes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-Chromosome Y-chromosomal DNA] and mitochondrial DNA.)
Some [[cultures]] confer [[reverence]] to ancestors, both living and dead; in contrast, some more [[youth]]-oriented cultural [[contexts]] display less veneration of elders. In other cultural contexts, some people seek [[providence]] from their deceased ancestors; this [[practice]] is sometimes known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancestor_worship ancestor worship].
