Progenitor

A progenitor is a person or thing from which others are descended or originate. For example, it is used to refer to the ancestor who started the line of a noble family.

In a wider sense today it is used to refer to the person who originates a movement or way of life.

The progenitor (German: Stammvater or Ahnherr) is the (sometimes legendary) founder of a family, line of descent, clan or tribe, noble house or people group.Genealogy (commonly known as family history), understands a progenitor to be the earliest recorded ancestor of a consanguineous family group of descendants.

Progenitors are sometimes used to describe the status of a genealogical research project, or in order to compare the availability of genealogical data in different times and places. Often, progenitors are implied to be patrilineal. If a patrilineal dynasty is considered, each such dynasty has exactly one progenitor.

Aristocratic and dynastic families often look back to an ancestor who is seen as the founder and progenitor of their house (i.e. family line). Even the old Roman legal concept of agnates (Latin for "descendants") was based on the idea of the unbroken family line of a progenitor, but only includes male members of the family, whilst the women were referred to as "cognatic".

It is rarely possible to confirm biological parenthood, however, (see bastardy) in the case of ancient family lines; in addition the progenitor is often a distant ancestor, only known as a result of oral tradition. Where people groups and communities rely solely on a patrilinear family line, their common ancestor often became the subject of a legend surrounding the origin of the family. By contrast, families and peoples with a matrilinear history trace themselves back to an original female progenitrix. Matrilinear rules of descent are found in about 200 of the 1300 known indigenous peoples and ethnic groups worldwide, whilst around 600 have patrilineal rules of descent (from father to son).

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