What does ancestry mean?
Word: Ancestry
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Ancestry means the family members who lived before you, going back many generations; where your family comes from.
Synonyms: descent, heritage, origin
How do you spell ancestry?
Syllables: an - ces - try
Tricky part: There is no o before the r: students who know a similar family word write ancestory. The y comes straight after the r.
Watch out for: ancestory, ancestery, ancestary
Memory tip: The word ends in try: you try to trace your family back, and there is no o on the way.
Ancestry in a sentence
Example 1: Dev is proud of his Scottish and Italian ancestry.
Example 2: The museum helps people find records of their ancestry.
Example 3: Many people today test their DNA to learn about their ancestry.
Fun Fact
Ancestry came into English from Old French in the Middle Ages; the Latin verb behind it meant to go before.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word:
ancestry
a) neighbourhood
b) prosperity
c) offspring
d) lineage
Show answer
d) lineage. Your lineage is your line of family going back in time.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Meera traced her family's ansestry back to a village of potters near Jaipur.
a) potters
b) ansestry
c) traced
d) village
Show answer
b) ansestry. The s sound after an is spelt with a c, as in ancestor.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
steancry
a) ancestor
b) sanctuary
c) ancestral
d) ancestry
Show answer
d) ancestry. Spot an at the start and try at the end: the eight letters make ancestry, with nothing left for ancestor, ancestral or sanctuary.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A person of Irish ancestry ____.
a) has visited Ireland on holiday
b) works for an Irish film studio
c) has family roots among Irish people
d) is learning to speak Irish
Show answer
c) has family roots among Irish people
2. Which would tell you most about your ancestry?
a) a list of your classmates
b) your great-grandmother's birth record
c) this year's school timetable
d) your best friend's diary
Show answer
b) your great-grandmother's birth record
