Duck fans! The Duck-McDuck family tree.

In the 600th issue of Walt Disney’s Comics published by Gladstone (Gladstone publishing, not Gladstone Gander) in December 1995, there appeared this delightful family tree tracing the ancestry of Donald Duck and his uncle Scrooge McDuck.

The credits say that the drawing was researched, expanded and drawn by Don Rosa, based on a sketch by the legenday Carl Barks. As all duck afficionados know, Rosa is the worthy heir of the father of all good Scrooge McDuck comix, Barks.

It is intersting to note that Uncle Scrooge is actually the uncle of Donald and the GREAT uncle of Huey, Dewie and Louie.

Donald is the son of Hortense McDuck, Scrooge’s sister who married Quackmore Duck, Donald’s father. Both were famous for their extremely bad temper, which seems to have bordered on the psychotic. So Donald came by his temper tantrums honestly.

Now then, Quackmore, Donald’s father, was the son of Elvira “Grandma” Coot, who had Quackmore with her husband Humperdink Duck. Elvira is of course the famous “Gandma” duck, one of the better-known ducks in the comix series. So she is in fact Donald’s paternal grandmother. But did you know that she is also the great-aunt of her lazy hired hand, Gus Goose?

But I have a few questions.

1)There seems to be three seminal lines in this family diagram, namely, the Coots, the Ducks and the McDucks. But in the generation before Donald there seems to be the introduction of individuals named “Goose” “Gander” (a male goose) and even “Loon”. Coots are a form of waterfowl (see here as are loons and geese, but are these species able to interbreed?

  1. Who is the father of Huey, Dewey and Louie? Ther is something strange about the refusal of both barks and Rosa to identify him. Take a look at their mother, Della Duck, Donald’s sister. Does she not look a little. . . . . shall we say. . . . morally lax? Might she have been “with eggs” out of wedlock? Is THIS the family secret that Barks and Rosa are hiding?

  2. Who is Cuthbert Coot (far right of the third line down)? I note he is not married. And there is something about him that sets off my gaydar, especially his cowboy outfit.

I would be happy to discuss duck lore with people who love the Ducks and McDucks as much as I do.

Do the Duck and McDuck families share a common ancestor?

Della Duck copulated with an unknown person with the surname “Duck,” and Donald Duck is currently dating a girl with the surname “Duck”.

That is a seriously weird family.

By jingo, you are right! Daisy does not appear on that tree, but then again, she has not married Donald. In fact, he has asked her to wed numerous times but nobody can understand a word he says.

Yes, I note that Della did in fact copulate with someone named “Duck”, but then again, that may be a very common surname, especially in a place like Duckburg. OTOH, inbreeding might account for Donald’s extremely serious speech impediment, though.

But I think to a large extent, Donald is not sufficiently appreciated. He is a single parent raising three young boys. Perhaps because of his speech impediment, he seems to have trouble holding down a job, and has been employed in numerous pursuits. But through it all, he has managed to support his three nephews and to give them a good home.

You would think that their grand uncle Scrooge McDuck, with his untold fortune, would do a little to help his ONLY living descendants, even if they ARE bastards. But not a dime. Uncle Scrooge does pay Donald and the boys a miserable wage of less than a dollar an hour to risk life and limb helping him recover treasures in far-off lands, but that hardly qualifies the old miser as a philanthropist!

You may not be aware of it, but Donald’s nephews came to him from his sister Della (nicknamed Dumbella) for what was ostensibly a temporary visit, in the 1930s, an have remained with him ever since.

I note that the three little ducks NEVER mention the mother who abandoned them or their unknown father. Obviously, a painful subject.

So Donald was a disabled, male single-parent of three boys in the 1930s. Talk about a courageous and admirable person!

Most of my childhood knowledge of history came from back issues of MAD and old Carl Barks Comics.

I’m personally convinced that Huey, Dewey and Louie are Donald and Daisy’s illegitimate children.

I would think that after more than 70 years, these nephews should be out on their own by now.

We’re still talking about Donald Duck cartoons, right?

I remember when this family tree came out. I think the biggest shock was not seeing the father of Huey, Dewey and Louie. Though it does make perfect sense, since Donald Duck is practically their father figure already.

That he is. I treasure my autographed copy of The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. It approaches Barks’s works, in my opinion.

What about April, May, and June Duck? I really hope they’re not Huey, Dewey, and Louie’s sisters, because they have dated :eek:

They seem to be doing better than Scrooge was at their age, anyway- nobody seems to be pushing them to get a job shining shoes on the street, or anything like that. I bet Scrooge does give money to support them, but he probably doesn’t want anyone knowing that.

Cute Scrooge some slack. He did take in the boys when Donald joined the navy.

“race cars, lasers, aero-planes… its a duck-blur.”
Has anyone connected Darkwing Duck to the family?

No, Coots belong to an entirely different Order of birds (Order Ralliformes, Family Rallidae) than Ducks (Order Anserformes, Family Anatidae). They are actually a kind of rail. Loons are also in a different Order (Gaviiformes, Family Gaviidae). None of these could interbreed with ducks.

Geese are in the same family as ducks, but a different subgroup. Donald and his close kin appear to be Pekin Ducks, a domestic breed of the Mallard Anas platyrhynchos. Of the other kinds of waterfowl mentioned, Gadwalls and Pintails are different species in the same genus as Mallards, and eiders are in a different subgroup in the same family. Mallards, Gadwalls, and Pintails can interbreed among one another, but probably not with geese or eiders.

I have no idea if a McDuck could interbreed with a Mallard. :wink:

Where’s Launchpad McQuack and Darkwing Duck? Surely they must be distantly related to the McDuck’s.

Here’s a Wikipedia list of DuckTales characters, most have their own page, too.

Tell me if I am seeing things, folks, but if you look at the very bottom of the McDuck geneology (here Sir Eider McDuck bears enormous resemblance to . . . . .Daffy Duck!

Anyone who has seen *Roger Rabbit * knows that there has always been considerabl hostility between Daffy and Donald. And daffy, like Donald, has a speech impediment as well. He spits when he pronounces certain syllables.

Is it possible that Daffy is a cousin they don’t talk bout because he went to work for Warner Brothers instead of Disney?

When did Donald join the Navy? Was that WWII? I must warn you that REAL duck purists consider the Duck Tales cartoons to be apocryphal at best, though clearly inspired by the gospels according to Barks and Rosa.

Real enthusiasts limit to Barks. Rosa is good, but not canonical.

I sort of regard Rosa as relating to Barks much as St. Paul relates to Jesus. The latter is undeniably the more important figure and the founder and wellspring of it all. But the latter, while undeniably not as great as the master, is the one who set it all up in a coherent system, by inspiring himself with the ideas of the master.