Forefather

Part of speech: noun (n.)

One who precedes another in the line of genealogy in any degree, but usually in a remote degree; an ancestor. Respecting your forefathers, you would have been taught to respect yourselves. Burke. Forefathers' Day, the anniversary of the day (December 21) on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts (1620). On account of a mistake in reckoning the change from Old Style to New Style, it has generally been celebrated on the 22d.