1. Former, previous, predecessor, prior, past, foregone, forehand, forerunner, late, precedent, preceding, antecedent, Antecedental, antecessor

2. In genealogy and in phylogenetic studies of evolutionary biology, Antecedents or antecessors are predecessors in a family line

3. Ancestral comes from the Late Latin antecessor, "predecessor," or literally "forgoer," from the root Antecedere, "to precede."