forefather vs ascendant

forefather and ascendant both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
forefather	Yes	No	No	No
ascendant	Yes	Yes	No	No

As nouns, ascendant is a hypernym of forefather; that is, ascendant is a word with a broader meaning than forefather:

forefather: the founder of a family
ascendant: someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)

Other hypernyms of forefather include ancestor, antecedent, ascendent, root.

forefather (noun)	ascendant (noun)
the founder of a family	someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent)
person from an earlier time who contributed to the tradition shared by some group	position or state of being dominant or in control

forefather (adjective)	ascendant (adjective)
	tending or directed upward
	most powerful or important or influential