Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree

Don Rosa's Donald Duck Family Tree
1993

(click on the tree to see a bigger scan, on Sigvald Grøsfjeld jr.'s website)

This tree, published in 1993, is the result of the combination between Rosa's studies of Barks' work and Worden's tree, correspondances between Barks and Rosa in the early 1990's, and Don Rosa's advance plans for his Lo$ series, especially chapter 10, and it even has few references to non-Barksian Disney work...

I tried to classify the characters appearing here into 6 categories (* column) :

$ :	characters regular in Barks' stories
§ :	characters appearing/mentionned in only one Barks story
¤ :	characters who only appeared in Barks' 1950's tree and its 1981 remake by Worden
# :	characters appearing/mentionned only in Disney sources other than Barks
@ :	characters fully created by Don Rosa for the needs of the tree
& :	characters created by Don Rosa and appearing in his stories

Names :	*	Informations about characters :
Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck	$	Donald's triplet nephews.
? Duck (Huey, Dewey and Louie's father)	ø	Unlike Mark Worden, Don Rosa chose to not show the face of this character, and to designate him with a question mark. The history of Huey, Dewey and Louie's parents is still a mystery. it would be unexplainable, in any acceptable way, as to where the Nephews' parents had been for so long and why they would abandon their children. The only reason, other than that they were "low-down good-fer-nuthins", would be that they were dead... So Egmont publishers don't allow creators to tell anything about it. Acording to Don Rosa, the father of Huey, Dewey and Louie is Daisy's brother, which would explain why their last name is Duck, but this isn't shown here, as there wasn't room for it.
Della Duck	# ¤	Although Don Rosa gave to the nephews' mother the appearance she had in Worden's 1981 work, he chose to give her back the name she had in Taliaferro's 1937 strip, Della (also the first name of Taliaferro's aunt), althought she was told to be his cousin in these strips, because it was the original, first used name and the name Thelma came from nowhere, and didn't go as well with "Duck". According to Don Rosa, the name "Dumbella" she is given in the cartoon "Donald's Nephews" (from 1938, and in which she's told to be Donald's sister, this time) could be a nickname Donald used to annoy her. She's never seen as an adult in Don Rosa's stories, we only rarely see her as a child in panels explaining the day her mother quarreled with Scrooge and decided to leave Duckburg around 1930 in "Lo$ #11 - The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (1994), "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994), and "A Letter from Home" (2004).
Donald Duck	$	The world's most famous Duck.
Gladstone Gander	$	Don Rosa chose to use the second version of Barks sketches for his relation to Scrooge, as the first one had a silly plot (the story about his real parents dying from overating at a picnic), while the second one was more appropriate, as it fits well with Barks' story "Race to the South Seas". He's got the same attitude than in Worden's tree
Fethry Duck	#	Don Rosa didn't want to include this character in his tree because it hasn't be created nor used by Barks, and has almost never been seen in American Duck comics, and because he thinks he's too stupid a character, but he has been obliged to put Fethry by his publisher because he was such a very famous character to European readers, even though the publisher itself didn't like the character. Nowadays, the publisher consider Fethry's character is as "dead" as Ludwig, so he wouldn't have appeared if the tree had been submitted today.
Abner "Whitewater" Duck	§	This character appeared in Barks' "Log Jockey" (1962), by the name Whitewater Duck, as a distant cousin of Donald and Huey, Dewey and Louie. Don Rosa prefered showing him as a direct cousin, and gave him the first name Abner instead, considering that "Whitewater" could only be a nickname.
Gus Goose	$	In Barks' first version of the tree, he was a nephew of Luke the Goose (Gladstone's biological father), and in the second one, he was Grandma's daughter's son. Don Rosa first wanted to make him Grandma Duck's nephew (and Fanny Coot being Grandma's sister), as suggested in the story "Donald's Grandma Duck" (1950), but the editor didn't like the idea of him being of the same generation as Donald's father and Scrooge.
Matilda McDuck	¤ &	This sister of Scrooge was present in the first version of Barks' sketches, as Gladstone's adopted mother, but she is deleted in the second one. Don Rosa chose to take her back in his tree, but she seems to be an "old maid" : Don Rosa first wanted her to be married to Ludwig von Drake for several reasons : he grew up with Ludwig on TV and liked the character, Barks didn't create the character but used him once in "Flowers Are Flowers" (1961), she is the only way Ludwig Von Drake could actually be a relative of Donald, and it would be a "perfectly logical idea having the two European members of the Duck family being married and living far away". But neither Barks, who had a low regard for the character, nor the publisher, who considers Ludwig as "officially dead", agreed. So what happened here is kind of the opposite of what happened with Fethry... She can be seen in the same stories than Hortense, (except in "The Dream of a Lifetime"), and also in a picture on Scrooge's wall in "A Little Something Special" (1997). Her last appearance was in "A Letter from Home" (2004), in which she lives in the McDuck castle, in Scotland, in 1955 (present time for Don Rosa's stories), and is reunited with Scrooge after 25 years. When asked if this story contradicts the fact that she's married to Ludwig, Don Rosa answered that it's still his belief that Ludwig and Matilda are married : "Nothing in my story [proves] she is not or was not married to Ludwig", "Instead of [complicating the plot of this story], I figure Ludwig away from home that week giving a lecture tour. If I ever use Matilda again, I can try to use Ludwig... but then it's up to the editor as to whether he will allow that idea.". She even probably has been saved from Barks' 1950 sketches when Don Rosa wrote "Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies" in 1991 and later the Lo$ series, just because he needed her to be Ludwig's wife and for no other reasons (at least at this time : Matilda's character got very useful after episode 10). Ludwig Von Drake made very short appearances in Rosa's work :we can see him in one panel of "The pied piper of Duckburg" (1990), we can guess him sat on a chair in "A Little Something Special" (1997), and eventually in a Scandinavian Christmas calendar from 2000. The only official place where Ludwig and Matilda are said to be married is in Monique Peterson's "The Little Big Book of Disney", from 2001.
Scrooge McDuck	$	Donald's rich uncle. He's got the same attitude than in Worden's tree.
Hortense McDuck	¤ &	Donald's mother, whose name comes from Barks' first version of his sketches. She can be seen as a child sucking her thumb in those three stories : "Lo$ #0 - Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies" (1991), "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992), and in Scrooge's dreams in "The Dream Of A Lifetime" (2002). The we see her a bit older in a panel of "Lo$ #3 - The Buckaroo Of The Badlands" (1992), as a young lady in "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993), "Lo$ #9 - The Billionaire of Dismal Downs" (1993), "Lo$ #10 - The Invader of Fort Duckburg" (1994), "Lo$ #10b - The Sharpie of the Culebra Cut" (2001), and "Lo$ #11 - The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (1994), at the end of which she's a woman, married to Quackmore and having two children, Della and Donald, quarrels with Scrooge and is never to be seen again, a scene that's re-told in "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994) and "A Letter from Home" (2004). She's also seen at Daphne and Gladstone's birthday in "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink" (D 1997).
Quackmore Duck	¤ &	Donald's father, whose name comes from Barks' first version of his sketches. Don Rosa then re-used him in ""Lo$ #10 - The Invader of Fort Duckburg" (1994), and in the quarrel scene from "Lo$ #11 - The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (1994), which is re-told in "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994) and "A Letter from Home" (2004), although we only see his shadow in the later. He also appears in flash-back of Gladstone's memory in Don Rosa's Lo$ and in "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink" (D 1997).
Goostave Gander	¤	This name originally came from Barks' first version of the tree, where a Goosetave (note the "e") Gander was married to Scrooge's sister Matilda and was Gladstone's adopted father. Don Rosa cancelled this idea of adopted and biological parents for Gladstone, so he chose to follow Barks' second verison of the tree, but he also chose to keep Goostave (the "e" disappeared) as Gladstone's father. In the publications of Mark Worden's version of the tree, he was called Goosetale or even Goosetail instead. He was never re-used in Rosa's stories.
Daphne Duck	¤ &	Gladstone's mother in Barks' first version of the tree, she was unnamed in the second one, but Don Rosa chose to give her the same name back, and to make her marry Goostave instead Luke. Don Rosa re-used her in "Lo$ #10 - The Invader of Fort Duckburg" (1994) and "The Sign of the Triple Distelfink" (D 1997).
Lulubelle Loon	@	Don Rosa's creation, only used in this tree. Her portrait seems to have been inspired by Daphne's portrait in Worden's tree, and also a bit by Fethry Duck's wackiness. She never appeared again in Rosa's stories.
Eider Duck	§ &	He appeared by name in Barks' "Farragut the Falcon / The fighting Falcon" (1944), in which he sends a falcon to his nephew Donald, by postage. Don Rosa chose to include him in his tree, althought Barks didn't (he possibly did forget about this character), and to make him one of Grandma's sons. Don Rosa only re-used him in "Lo$ #10 - The Invader of Fort Duckburg" (1994).
Fanny Coot	# ¤	Don Rosa chose to give Gus' mother the name she had in the short "Donald's Cousin Gus" (1939), in which a letter explaining she's sending Gus to visit Donald is signed "Aunt Fanny". Note that her clothes are the same than in Worden's tree. Don Rosa originally had Fanny Coot as Grandma's sister, but his publisher didn't like the idea of Gus Goose being of the same generation as Donald's father and $crooge McDuck.
Luke Goose	¤ §	Althought this character wasn't useful after Don Rosa chose not to consider the theory about Gladstone's biological parents dying, from Barks' first version of the sketches, Don Rosa chose to keep this character and make him Gus' father (instead of uncle). He looks a lot like Worden's version of the character. Note that the "the" is removed from his original name, Luke the Goose.
Cuthbert Coot	§	Donald's cousin having a ranch in "Webfooted Wrangler / Donald Learns the Ropes" (1944). It's probably thanks to his last name, Coot, that Don Rosa had that idea about Cornelius Coot being an ancestor of Donald Duck.
Downy O'Drake	&	Scrooge's mother, fully created by Don Rosa, who tried to think up another ducky sounding name, but didn't want to use "Mc" again, and, as Ireland is nearby, chose a " O' " name. She could be seen alive in "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992), a panel of "Lo$ #3 - The Buckaroo Of The Badlands" (1992), on a picture in the first panel of "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993), and as a ghost in "Lo$ #9 - The Billionaire of Dismal Downs" (1993). The she's also re-used in Scrooge's thoughts in "Lo$ #11 - The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (1994), on a filmed photograph and in Scrooge's thoughts in "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994), and eventually in Scrooge's dreams in "The Dream Of A Lifetime" (2002). Although Don Rosa didn't take this as an inspiration when creating Downy, Scrooge's mother appears in the episode of the DuckTales 1987 TV series titled "Once Upon A Dime", called "MacMapa", and of appearance similar to Downy's.
Fergus McDuck	& / ¤	Barks already had a character for Scrooge's father in the first version, called Old "Scotty McDuck, but Don Rosa chose to invent a proper first name for him, and he didn't keep Worden's portrait of the character either. He appeared in "Lo$ #0 - Of Ducks, Dimes and Destinies" (1991), "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992), a panel of "Lo$ #3 - The Buckaroo Of The Badlands" (1992), "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993), "Lo$ #7 - Dreamtime Duck of the Never Never" (1993), and "Lo$ #9 - The Billionaire of Dismal Downs" (1993), in which he dies and is also seen as a ghost. Then he can be seen on a picture of his family on TV as well as in Scrooge's thoughts in "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994). The he's seen twice in Scrooge's thoughts in the story "Lo$ #11 - The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (1994) on a framed and signed picture on Scrooge's wall in the story "A Little Something Special" (1997), and eventually in Scrooge's dreams in "The Dream Of A Lifetime" (2002). He was a mill worker, according to the unpublished sketches. In Van Horn's "Secrets" (1999), Rumpus McFowl uses the name Fergus when he mentions Scrooge's father. Although Don Rosa didn't take this as an inspiration when creating Fergus, Scrooge's father appears in the episode of the DuckTales 1987 TV series "Once Upon A Dime", called "MacPapa", and of appearance similar to Fergus'.
Jake McDuck	§	We can see a photo of him in Barks' "A Christmas for Shacktown" (1952), in which Donald disguises himself into him. Don Rosa showed him living with his brother Fergus in "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992), "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993), "Lo$ #7 - Dreamtime Duck of the Never Never" (1993), in a "thought bubble" in "Lo$ #11 - The Empire-Builder from Calisota" (1994), and on a picture, together with the clan McDuck, which is filmed for a TV show about Scrooge's life, in "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994). According to Don Rosa, he didn't have any children.
Angus "Pothole" McDuck	§ &	Pothole McDuck, Scrooge's uncle, was mentionned in Barks "The Great Steamboat Race" (1955), in which he was told to have started a ferryboat race against a Porker Hog on the Mississippi. He used him in "Lo$ #2 - The Master of the Mississippi", which happens short after the race, and later in "Lo$ #6b - The Vigilante of Pizen Bluff" (1996) in which he now works on Wild West shows with Phineas T. Barnum and draws comicbooks of his adventures in Mississippi, and on a picture in "Lo$ #12 - The Recluse Of McDuck Manor" (1994). We can also see a picture of him in the Beagle Boys photo album in the story "The Beagle Boys vs. The Money Bin" (2001). Don Rosa renamed him "Angus" ("I decided "Pothole" didn't sound very Scottish and was obviously a nickname for a riverboater... a pothole being a round depression dug in the riverbed mud by the water currents"). Another interpretation of this character appears in an episode of the DuckTales 1987 TV series titled "Once Upon A Dime", here called "Catfish McDuck", with a totally different appearance.
Humperdink Duck (Dabney)	# &	Don Rosa didn't want to use the Grandpa Duck appearing in flashback panels of Strobl's 1964 story "The Good Old Daze", he nevertheless used non-Barks Disney references in the making of this character : while he visually created him, he first gave him the name Dabney, which he later changed to Humperdink, the name of Grandma's deceased love interrest (nothing tells us in the story that this Duck was to become her husband or not) in a 1951 Bill Wright untitled story from Dell Giant "Vacation Parade" #2, in which he appears on two "thought panels" of Grandma's memory. Humperdink has been used in "Lo$ #10 - The Invader of Fort Duckburg" (1994), and later in "The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink" (1997), in flash-backs.
Elvira "Grandma" Coot	$	Donald's grandmother. Don Rosa is the first to reveal her last name, Coot, and to make her Cornelius descendant, which he re-affirmed in "W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N." (1997), in which we're explicitly told that Grandma is Cornelius' granddaughter. But even though her first name was not well known at the time, he didn't invent it : it's actually from a 1950 Riley Thomson story entitled "Grandma Duck, Gus and Jaq", in a few other WDC stories, and which is said to have become her common name among the Italian story men (actually it was "Elviry", considered by Rosa as being the rural pronunciation of "Elvira").When Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree was first published in Europe, many people were surprised because in some European stories, including one by Marco Rota, Uncle $crooge and Grandma Duck were brother and sister. But with his family tree Don Rosa kinda killed that myth. Don Rosa gave her the name Coot so she can be Cornelius' descendant. She's got the same attitude than in Worden's tree.
Casey Coot	&	Don Rosa created this character in "Last Sled to Dawson" (AR 113), as a descendant of Cornelius Coot who sold a land in Duckburg to Scrooge during the Gold Rush (nothing tells us that at the time, Don Rosa was to make him Grandma's brother). He then made short appearances in "Lo$ 8 - The Argonaut Of White Agony Creek" (1993), although his eyes are drawn a different way, and "Lo$ 8b - Hearts Of The Yukon" (1995). He strangely looks like a character on a Barks 1978 Gold Rush painting titled "Belles of the Klondike", although Don Rosa confirmed he wasn't inspired by this painting when he created the character.
Gretchen Grebe	@	Character only created by Don Rosa for this tree. He didn't re-use her in other stories.
Quagmire Duck	§	Scrooge's great-uncle mentionned in Barks' "The Heirloom Watch" (1954), of whom Scrooge inherited a watch. Don Rosa invented a portrait for him, but he didn't re-used him in a story.
"Dirty" Dingus McDuck	@ § #	Scrooge's Scottish coal miner grandfather. In Barks' "Hound of the Whiskervilles", Scrooge tells his grandfather wore a coal miner cap. In Strobl's 1960 story "The Search for Cyril", we get to meet a grandpa of Scrooge called Titus McDuck.The Swedish translators decided to keep the name "Titus Von Anka " for Dingus' translation, so we can consider them as the same character. Although Don Rosa never used him in a story, we can see in his rejected sketches for "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992) that he first planned to use him.
Molly Mallard	@	Character only created by Don Rosa for this tree. He didn't re-use her in other stories.
Gertrude Gadwall	@	Character only created by Don Rosa for this tree. He didn't re-use her in other stories.
Clinton Coot	&	Founder of the Junior Woodchucks, son of Cornelius Coot, the founder of Duckburg, and father of Grandma Duck, Don Rosa named him after the president of the United States at the time he created him, Bill Clinton. In "Guardians of the Lost Library" (1993), one of the nephews refer to him as the creator of the Junior Woodchucks, and then he made two cameo appearances : in "W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N." (1997), where he's seen on a screen in a movie about the Junior Woodchuck's history, and as a clay bust in "The Magnificent Seven (Minus Four) Caballeros!" (2005). His name is also mentionned in "A Little Something Special" (1997).
Sirs Roast, Stuft, Swamphole, Quackly and Eider McDuck	§ &	Ancestors of Scrooge from Barks' "The Old Castle Secret" (1948), in which we only see their armors, they have later been reused by Rosa in "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992), in which we can see Sir Quackly's ghost, Sir Eider on a tapestry and also part of Sir Swamphole's skull peeking through his armor's helmet, and also in "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993) , in the McDuck tribunal, together with unnamed dead members of the McDuck clan.
Hugh "Seafoam" McDuck	§	Seafoam McDuck was a captain ancestor of Scrooge, from whom he inherited golden dentures, appearing in flash back panels from Barks' "The Horse-radish Story" (1953). Don Rosa thought "Seafoam" could only be a nickname and renamed him "Hugh". Don Rosa re-tells this flash-back sequence in "Lo$ #1 - The Last Of The Clan McDuck" (1992), and we can also meet this character among the tribunal of the McDucks in "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993), and on a picture on a wall of Fergus' house in "The Dream Of A Lifetime" (2002).
Malcolm McDuck and Pintail Duck	§	Matey McDuck and Pintail Duck both first appeared as Scrooge and Donald's past incarnations in Barks' "Back to Long Ago!". Don Rosa puts them as Scrooge's and Donald's ancestors, but chose to rename Matey into Malcolm for some reasons. Although he never used Pintail, Malcom can be quickly seen amongst the Tribunal of the McDucks in "Lo$ #5 - The New Laird of Castle McDuck" (1993).
Cornelius Coot	$	The founder of Duckburg, shown as a statue in several Duck stories, created by Barks in "Statuesque Spendthrifts" from 1952. Don Rosa chose to make him Donald's ancestor (Grandma's grandpa). He is Clinton's father, even though it's not clearly explicit here (the reason why his relationship with Clinton isn't fully defined on the tree is that he's been treated the same way as the early ancestors on all 3 trees : only the characters who appear in the upper branches have fully defined family relationships, and there is no room left for additions). Don Rosa thinks that Cornelius had no other children than Clinton, and that he probably had him with an Indian Squaw, with whom he probably wasn't married. Although Cornelius appeared in earlier German trees (probably because his name was mistakenfully translated "David Duck" in a German version), which Don Rosa didn't know, this is the very first time Cornelius Coot is said to be an ancestor of the Ducks, an idea which was re-affirmed in "W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N." (1997), in which we're explicitly told that Grandma is Cornelius' granddaughter. Don Rosa was also the first one who used Cornelius as a character (Cornelius appeared in lots of stories on pictures or as a statue, but "His Majesty, McDuck", from 1989, there's a flashback showing his history), except in "Paperino e la "graande impresa", a 1988 by Massimo De Vita and Giorgio Pezzin story, in which Cornelius is shown alive only in a few panels and looks more like Donald Duck.
April, May, June, and Daisy Duck, Gyro Gearloose	$	In some versions of the tree, we can also see those characters in a special column, drew months after the tree by Don Rosa, on separate papers, on the publishers' demand. Which leads me to evocate the way Daisy and her nieces are blood-related : in their first appearance, in Barks' "Flip Decision" (1952), we learn that they are Daisy's unnamed sister's daughters. It's been once suggested by a fan that this sister could be Donna Duck, from the cartoon "Don Donald" (1937), which is usually considered as Daisy's first appearance, to which Don Rosa answered it would be a good idea. This is an excellent idea indeed, but for somebody only caring about the Barks/Rosa universe : Taliaferro re-used Donna's character in stories from 1951, in which she meets Daisy for the first time... so they're not sisters at all (they hate eachother and fight for Donald's heart)!

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