How to Use ancestry in a Sentence

ancestry

noun
  • She claims to be able to trace her ancestry all the way back to the earliest settlers.
  • They claim to be of noble ancestry.
  • These tests can teach users more about their ancestry or health.
    — Clare Duffy, CNN, 25 Mar. 2025
  • That’s my crime, is my ancestry.
    — Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 19 Feb. 2026
  • None of us, or our dogs, have a more ancient ancestry than any other.
    — New York Times, 4 Oct. 2021
  • The mother of two, who has ancestry from three area tribes, fell through the cracks both in life and in death.
    — Gillian Flaccus, ajc, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Primus is how my ancestry began.
    — Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 10 Feb. 2026
  • But when the book club gifts Polly an ancestry kit, she’s matched with a stranger.
    — Carly Tagen-Dye, People.com, 4 Aug. 2025
  • Pisces is your fourth house of home, family, ancestry, and land.
    — Kirah Tabourn, Condé Nast Traveler, 25 Feb. 2023
  • The group goes beyond the first daughters whose ancestry is traced to a village or town.
    — Nnamdi Madichie, Quartz, 29 Apr. 2021
  • This link is one of the most puzzling ancestry findings of recent years.
    — Jennifer Raff, Scientific American, 1 May 2021
  • This makes these products a true boon for anyone with dry hair, no matter their ancestry.
    — Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 25 Mar. 2026
  • By the end of Land, no matter what your ancestry, these are your people.
    — Literary Hub, 28 May 2026
  • As a storyteller, Tara didn’t just want to learn about her own ancestry.
    — Chris Searles, National Geographic, 17 Nov. 2020
  • For them, herbalism is a way of reclaiming their body and ancestry.
    — Celeste Polanco, refinery29.com, 7 Sep. 2021
  • These tests help pet parents discover their dog’s breed, health traits and ancestry.
    — Trisha Easto, USA Today, 17 Nov. 2025
  • Wali has no Ukrainian ancestry and doesn’t speak the language.
    — Shafi Musaddique, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Mar. 2022
  • The tests can help owners discover their dog's breed, health traits, and ancestry.
    — Trisha Easto, USA Today, 17 Nov. 2025
  • If the police hacked into one of these ancestry databases, that would be a problem.
    — Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2022
  • Asian ancestry is also present as a result of the aforementioned slave trade.
    — Brenna Henn, The Conversation, 19 Apr. 2022
  • African ancestry is found at both ends of the social spectrum and in the east and west of England.
    — Duncan Sayer, JSTOR Daily, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Some breeds of dogs in East Asia appear to have retained this ancestry to the present day.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 29 June 2022
  • Fishburn’s ancestry is white, Black and Asian.
    — Paul Hodgins, Oc Register, 14 May 2026
  • There were many permutations to the dish, some of which signaled your ancestry.
    — Rachel Ringler, sun-sentinel.com, 7 Apr. 2021
  • While Combe did not dwell on Douglass’s mixed ancestry, others did.
    — Griffin Black, Scientific American, 12 Oct. 2020
  • As a result, the researchers were able to trace the genetic ancestry of the people who once lived there.
    — Tom Metcalfe, Scientific American, 2 July 2026
  • The researchers made no mention of people of African ancestry.
    — Melba Newsome, Scientific American, 12 Nov. 2021
  • The most common interpretation is to find out the ancestry of mixed breed dogs.
    — Dallas News, 4 Oct. 2022
  • The box covers the most popular classes and ancestries such as humans, elves, dwarves and halflings.
    — Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The key to most of the cases was ancestry — specifically, on the mother’s side.
    — Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'ancestry.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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