ancestress vs antecedent

ancestress and antecedent both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
ancestress	Yes	No	No	No
antecedent	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, antecedent is a hypernym of ancestress; that is, antecedent is a word with a broader meaning than ancestress:

ancestress: a woman ancestor
antecedent: someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

Other hypernyms of ancestress include ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, root.

ancestress (noun)	antecedent (noun)
a woman ancestor	the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun
	a preceding occurrence or cause or event
	someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
	anything that precedes something similar in time

ancestress (adjective)	antecedent (adjective)
	preceding in time or order