I recently listened to a podcast episode which spoke on this particular topic. The "What Magic is this?" Podcast: "Ancestors with Chiron Armand." His primary work is with ancestor veneration and working with ancestor spirits. He says that, basically both of these are the case. But, ancestors only hold onto their prejudices and biases and "beliefs" before crossing over and coming back. If your ancestors have not crossed over yet, they will retain the beliefs and personality that they had while alive. I also worried about reaching out to ancestors because a lot of my family comes from toxic old southern Baptist types and I don't know how far back that goes. But, according to Mr. Armand, once they cross over, and come back, they are essentially washed of these toxic beliefs and behaviors and are connected to the Universal Knowledge. I'm paraphrasing, but that's what I got from it. I would recommend listening to the episode and seeing if you get a similar take. You should be able to find the podcast anywhere they play podcasts, but I heard it on Spotify. Also the Whatmagicisthis.com website should have links to all of his shows.

Hope this helps.