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Alineal ordirect descendant, in legal usage, is a bloodrelative in a person's direct line ofdescent – thechildren, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. In a legal procedure sense, lineal descent refers to the acquisition ofestate byinheritance by parent from grandparent and by child from parent, whereas collateral descent refers to the acquisition of estate or real property by inheritance by sibling from sibling, and cousin from cousin.
Adopted children, for whomadoption statutes create the same rights of heirship aschildren of the body, come within the meaning of the term "lineal descendants," as used in a statute providing for the non-lapse of adevise where the devisee predeceases thetestator but leaves lineal descendants.
Among someNative American tribes in the United States, tribal enrollment can be determined by lineal descent, as opposed to a minimumblood quantum.[1] Lineal descent means that anyone directly descended from original tribal enrollees could be eligible for tribal enrollment, regardless of how much native blood they have.
Theantonym ofdescendant isantecedent.
Acollateral orindirect descendant is a term for a relative descended from a person'ssibling or the sibling of anancestor, and thus aniece,nephew, or youngercousin.[2]
The dictionary definition oflineal at Wiktionary