Examples from literature

• It is, indeed, rare in these days to find gentlemen as familiar as were their forebears with Latin and Greek. 
• She knew little about her forebears on her father's side, except that they were English, whereas Paolo had centuries behind him crammed full of glorious ancestors whose deeds were celebrated on tapestries of great beauty and value. 
• The robust blood of her French Canadian forebears was quickening to the call of the trail. 
• The sudden emotions of his Gallic forebears swept through him. 
• Think back a moment to my father and mother, and to my forebears farther back yet.