What is a descendant? Who are your ancestors? Who are just "relations"?

Question

Some may find this question obvious, but, many do not understand.

A descendant is a person that is directly related to a person.   That person becomes you XXX great grandparent.   That person is an Ancestor.

The reason for posting this is that I have regularly posted looking for "Descendants" of US Presidents.   The answers I get normally sound like this, US President X and I are 13 cousins 9 times removed.   That is a relationship, not the description of a descendant.   

While many of us are proud of our relationships, it is important that we distinguish the difference between relationships and ancestry when doing genealogy.

Comments

We also get a few questions on G2G where people get confused between descendants and ancestors. They ask about descendants (those who come after) when they really want to know about ancestors (those who came before).

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Yes! Those are relationships. Ancestor/descendent is a relationship as well, but cousins/aunts/uncles are relationships that are not also (usually) in an ancestor/descendent relationship.

The term that really gets me is "direct descendent" A descendent would, by definition, be direct.

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When I first joined WikiTree, I was schooled that I was not a "direct descendant" unless I had the same surname. If I didn't, then I was a "lineal descendant" - albeit in the direct line. Membership in many heritage organizations are restricted to those with a lineal ancestor who meets the organization's criteria, as opposed to a collateral ancestor (a sibling of a lineal ancestor).

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I got in an argument with a guy on the biblical genealogies. He said Lot was Abraham's descendant. Well, I studied the Biblical genealogies of the OT. and had extracted the genealogies.

I tried to explain to the guy that Lot was Abraham's nephew and heir until the birth of the Ishmael and Isaac, and the children of Abraham's concubine, Keturah, but was not a direct descendant of Abraham.

The guy wasn't having it, he became alsolutely livid and florrid in the face. It seems his church bible study classes had told him that Lot was Abraham's son. And who was I to tell him his minister was wrong?

I told him that an heir did not mean "child of", any rich Uncle Tonoose could leave you his fortune, but that didn't make him your father.

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I much prefer the term lineal since that is the one that has a legal definition. Looking around, Direct descendent has a legal definition in some places referring to lines of succession (male line). I guess it is necessary to use those terms given so many people claim descent through a collateral line. Still see a lot of descendants of George Washington.

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Thanks Doug! I was trying to remember whether I'd been told I couldn't be a direct descendant even with the same surname since I wasn't a male (I joined WikiTree in May 2012 - way too long ago for me to remember!). Probably I was (told I couldn't be).

Cheers, Liz

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I think there are a few Societies that use male line only. I can't think of one off hand. Some of the surname Societies might well impose a male only rule.

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I recently heard someone refer to themselves as a "collateral descendant" of someone - he was like a great-grand nephew or something. Doesn't sound right to me!

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Collateral lines are branches that are related but not in the direct line.

Answer 1

The easiest way to remember the difference between your ancestors and your descendants is as simple as this. Think of descending order of your siblings, starting with the oldest going down (Down = descending) to the youngest. Descendants would be your children, your grandchildren and so on.

Your (Aunt) creators = ancestors= Your mother, grandmother, great grandmother.