When I honor my ancestors on Samhain, I honor all of them. I don't pick and choose, wether they have been a negative influence or positive or wether they have done bad things etc..etc...I believe that without the ones I never met , I wouldn't be here. As far as the ones I did meet, like I said good or bad...they helped me turn into the person I am today. Everyone in our lives teaches us something and I feel I should give thanks for that.
As far as what an ancestor is...well that depends on how you look at it...A family or "tribe ancestor" would be someone in my family...If you look at it..reincarnation wise...I'm honoring myself..It is a very confusing thing lol....
Hope this made sense.....Great post!

In my personal practice, on Samhain/All Hallows Eve, I honor the departed of this earth... some of whom are ancestors and some not... in my ritual the honoree does not have to have been an ancestor in blood. A spirit or soul holding special importance or influence in my heart will be attended during this turn of the wheel. Graves will be tended, pictures will be placed and table settings are laid out to include them in feast. Stories are shared with younger generations to pass on the remembrance. These souls are not kept in somber tone, rather a joyous celebration and grateful reflection of lives lived...
Many blessings of the new year to you & yours this Samhain, Emily and many more.
xxx ooo

At the beginning more or less I felt the same about my ancestors but eventually I realized (and experienced) that we might have really interesting ancestors from a few generations back...Maybe some of them just stayed and assigned to help others (even us) as guides? So why not go and have a look? Also making peace with our ancestors would help us to use the powers coming from their lines...

Yet, anybody who is not interested could skip the part about ancestors until they are ready and use the date for communicating with other beings such as guides, gods, guardians...

We had many lives and born into our families with some reason so we might even get an ancestor from another life...:)

I'm with Heather on this one...I honor the departed in general...beings on some level that may have toughed my soul or ones who are passing through. I think all beings should be givin the respect as they pass from this world to the next. And I believe that it may even help them heal so that when they choose to return, that their new life might be a kinder one than before.
And as for ancestors...I aways have an open door for them...even the ones that challenged me when they were alive...those are the ones I greet with open arms...to help them heal and remember.

i think the clan being idea you have is sooo cool! my ancestors are scattered and undocumented--so i associate alot with the places/origin of family names---i also claim the witchy folk who have gone before us as my(and our) ancestors-- psychically at least--