meaning of matrilineal
Matrilineal refers to familial relationships that can be traced through a female. To follow the matrilineal line in your family, start with your mom. In Latin, matri-refers to the mother, just as patri-refers to the father. Lineal is a word that refers to someone's lineage, or the line of people that came before that person; so the adjective matrilineal describes anything related to kinship through a female line.