Yes Josephine,
We shall have to agree to disagree.
I was raised in Australia using British English, so the dictionaries we used, were the likes of the Oxford Dictionary. So in this case, and Australian and an American would have had a different education in some ways, particularly in relation to spelling and grammar.
In my words, I generally say that past related members of my family are ancestors, yet I would refer to a GGGG grandfather (for example) to be a Direct Ancestor.
But I get your point Josephine.
Brett