ancestry

 
Pronunciation: /ˈansɛstri/

noun (plural ancestries)

  • 1one’s family or ethnic descent: he was proud of his Irish ancestry
  • the evolutionary or genetic line of descent of an animal or plant: the ancestry of the rose is extremely complicated
  • 2the origin or background of something: the book traces the ancestry of women’s poetry

Origin:

Middle English: alteration of Old French ancesserie, from ancestre (see ancestor)