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Duck family (Disney)
Duck family (Disney)
from Wikipedia
Lavender and Old Lace by Carl Barks; from left to right: (standing) Scrooge McDuck, Grandma Duck, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Gladstone Gander; (seated) Huey, Louie, and Dewey Duck; (foreground) Gyro Gearloose (unrelated) and Gus Goose

The Duck family is a fictional family of cartoon ducks related to Disney character Donald Duck. The family is also related to the Coot, Goose, and Gander families, as well as the Scottish Clan McDuck. Besides Donald, the best-known members of the Duck family are Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Donald's triplet nephews.

Members of the Duck family appear most extensively in Donald Duck comics (although some have made animated appearances). In 1993, American comics author Don Rosa published a Duck Family Tree that established the characters' relationships in his stories. He also created a fictional timeline for when certain characters were born (All birth/death dates given below are Rosa's). Other comics authors both before and after have shown variations in the family.

Development

[edit]
Carl Barks (left) and Don Rosa (right)

In the early 1950s Carl Barks was in his second decade of creating comic book stories starring Donald Duck and his various relatives. He had personally created several of the latter, such as Scrooge McDuck (Donald's uncle) and Gladstone Gander (Donald's cousin). To better define their relations, Barks created a family tree, wherein he added several previously unknown relatives to fill in the gaps. Barks never intended to publish this family tree and created it only for personal reference.

The first public attempt at a coherent biography of the Ducks was published in 1974. An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck by science fiction author Jack Chalker used names and events in the Barks stories (and a very few non-Barks ones) to create a life story for Scrooge. It provided the basis for a Scrooge McDuck biography included in The People's Almanac.[1]

In 1981, Barks was well into his retirement, but his stories remained popular and had gained him unexpected fame. He had given several interviews and answered questions about his personal views on the characters and their stories. Among other subjects, Barks described his early version of the family tree. Rough sketches of the tree were published in a number of fanzines and were appreciated by fans for the authoritative background information this provided. At this point, Mark Worden decided to create a drawing of Barks' Duck Family Tree, including portraits of the characters mentioned. Otherwise, Worden made few changes, most notably adding Daisy Duck as Donald's main love interest. His illustrated version of the tree was first published in several fanzines and later in The Carl Barks Library.

In 1987, Don Rosa, a long-time fan of Barks and personal friend of Mark Worden, started creating his own stories featuring Scrooge McDuck and his kin. Rosa's stories contained numerous references to Barks' stories and introduced original background information. After several years, Rosa gained a large international fanbase of his own. In the early 1990s, Egmont (the publishing house employing Don Rosa after Gladstone Publishing's initial run), offered him an ambitious assignment — to create the definitive version of Scrooge's biography and a family tree accompanying it. This was supposed to decisively put an end to decades of seeming contradictions between stories by different authors, which had caused confusion to readers. The project was to become the award-winning, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, a chronology of epic proportions that spawned numerous other timeline stories, collected in a companion volume. Rosa's Duck Family Tree accompanying the series was first published in Norway on July 3, 1993.

In the process of working on Scrooge's biography, Rosa studied Barks' old stories mentioning his past. Then he added several ideas of his own. Among them were biographical information for Scrooge's supporting cast, as well as designing characters in the family that had only been mentioned by Barks, such as Donald's sister Della and Scrooge's parents, sisters and uncles.

Family tree by Carl Barks

[edit]

The family tree below shows the Goose (left) and Duck (right) portions of Donald's family tree according to Carl Barks. The chart is based on a 1950s sketch made by Barks for personal use, which was later illustrated by artist Mark Worden in 1981.[2]

Family tree by Carl Barks
? GooseGrandma
Duck
Clan
McDuck
? GooseLuke
Goose
Daphne
Duck
Quackmore
Duck
Hortense
McDuck
Gus
Goose
Gladstone
Gander
(né Goose)
Daisy
Duck
Donald
Duck
Thelma
Duck
Huey, Dewey,
and Louie

Family tree by Don Rosa

[edit]

In 1993, Don Rosa published his version of the Duck family tree as part of his 12-part comics series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck. The most significant change was Rosa's expansion of the family tree to include the Coot relatives. Rosa also added Goostave Gander as the father of Gladstone, and made Luke Goose the father of Gus, rather than his uncle.

The chart below is Rosa's tree, which shows relationships within the Coot family (left) and Duck family (right).

Family tree by Don Rosa
Cornelius
Coot
Pintail
Duck
(ancestor)
Clinton
Coot
Gertrude
Gadwall
Gretchen
Grebe
Casey
Coot
Elvira
"Grandma Duck"
Coot
Humperdink
Duck
Clan
McDuck
Luke
Goose
Fanny
Coot
Cuthbert
Coot
Lulubelle
Loon
Eider
Duck
Goostave
Gander
Daphne
Duck
Quackmore
Duck
Hortense
McDuck
Gus
Goose
Abner
"Whitewater"
Duck
Fethry
Duck
Gladstone
Gander
Donald
Duck
Della
Duck
Huey, Dewey,
and Louie

Ancestors

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Andold "Wild Duck" Temerary

[edit]

Andold "Wild Duck" Temerary (Italian: Mac Paperin) was created by Gaudenzio Capelli and Marco Rota and appears in stories set in the Middle Ages. His first appearance was in "Paperino e il piccolo Krack" ("Donald Duck and the Little Krack"), published in Almanacco Topolino #228 (Dec 1975).[3] He is a lookalike and ancestor to Donald Duck. Andold was a commander who protected the shores of Caledonia (Scotland) from Vikings. He has a girlfriend named Aydis who looks like Daisy Duck, and he also has five soldiers, two of them are named Little Bo and Big Brutus.

Andold wears a helmet, topped with a miniature decoration representing his own face. As a comical touch, the decoration's facial expression always matches Andold's own, changing between panels if necessary.

In the first Andold story (Paperino e il piccolo Krack from 1975), Donald dreams about Andold, in the second (Le avventure di Mac Paperin: L'arrosto della salvezza from 1980, published in the United States as Donald Duck and his fierce ancestor... Andold Wild Duck), Huey, Dewey, and Louie are reading a book about his adventures. In later Andold stories, the modern-day Ducks do not appear. All Andold Wild Duck stories are illustrated by Marco Rota, most of them are also written by him.

The first Andold comic to be published in English was Donald Duck... and his fierce ancestor... Andold Wild Duck by Rota, published in a December 1993 edition of Donald Duck Adventures with cover illustration by Don Rosa featuring Andold.

The names Andold and Aydis are anagrams of Donald and Daisy.

Pintail Duck

[edit]

Pintail Duck was a 16th-century Duck relative and the first early ancestor to appear in the comics (in Barks' 1956 story, Back to Long Ago). Pintail served in the Royal Navy as the boatswain aboard HMS Falcon Rover. The Falcon Rover raided Spanish targets in the Caribbean Sea between 1563 and 1564 when the ship was sunk. Pintail was friends with the ship's first mate, Malcom "Matey" McDuck, who was a mutual ancestor of Donald and Scrooge.

Don de Pato

[edit]

Don de Pato was a 16th-century Spanish ancestor of Donald through both the Coot family and Clan McDuck, first appearing in the 1965 comic The Golden Galleon written by Carl Fallberg with art by Tony Strobl. He was a member of the Spanish Armada.

In the TV series Legend of the Three Caballeros, he appears under the name Don Dugo (used previously in German and Dutch translations of the comic), as one of the members of the original Three Caballeros, along with the ancestors of José Carioca and Panchito Pistoles.

Seth Duck

[edit]

Seth Duck was an ancestor of Donald's, considered a hero after warning Duckburg of an impending Native American attack. His statue exists in Duckburg's Park. He appeared in the 1967 comic The Clock Plot by Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl.

First generation

[edit]

Humperdink Duck

[edit]

Humperdink Duck is the earliest known contemporary Duck family member. He is the husband of Elvira Coot, known to the family as "Grandma Duck", and the father of Quackmore (Donald's father), Eider, and Daphne Duck (Gladstone's mother). Humperdink is father-in-law to Scrooge's sister Hortense (Donald's mother) who married his son Quackmore. He is Donald's paternal grandfather and the maternal great-grandfather of Huey, Dewey, and Louie, through their mother Della (Donald's twin sister). Humperdink worked as a farmer in rural Duckburg. Don Rosa gave the character relevant appearances in two stories, "The Invader Of Fort Duckburg",[4] a chapter of the saga The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, and "The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink".[5] In the family, he was known as "Pa Duck", and later as "Grandpa Duck".

Humperdink's life before having a family was never shown in the comics. Don Rosa speculated that the Duck family originated from England, but it is unknown if Humperdink is an immigrant.[6]

In the story "The Good Old Daze" by Tony Strobl,[7] Grandpa Duck (an older Humperdink) appears in a flashback scene taking care of little Donald along with Grandma, where he is portrayed as a dedicated but rigorous grandfather. Grandpa Duck's real name was not revealed in this story, but in an untitled story from 1951, an old lover of Grandma called Humperdink has a cameo appearance. Don Rosa considered that this character became Donald's paternal grandfather.[8] In "The Good Old Daze", artist Tony Strobl drew Grandpa Duck with a long beard and some hair, while Rosa has depicted him with a short beard and a full head of hair. In the Danish story The Good Neighbors (part of the series, Tamers of Nonhuman Threats), by writer Lars Jensen and artist Flemming Andersen, Strobl's version of Grandpa Duck appears in a flashback scene that is told by his wife Grandma Duck.[9] He also appears unnamed in the 1955 film No Hunting, in which he posthumously inspires Donald to take part in hunting season.

Grandma Duck

[edit]

Elvira "Grandma" Duck (née Coot,[10] October[11] c. 1855) is Donald's paternal grandmother and the Duck family matriarch. In most stories, she is simply referred to as "Grandma Duck". She was introduced to the Disney comic universe by Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp in the Donald Duck newspaper comic strip, first in a picture on the wall in the August 11, 1940, Sunday page, and then as a full-fledged character in the strip on Monday, September 27, 1943.[12] Taliaferro found inspiration for her in his own mother-in-law, Donnie M. Wheaton. Depending on the writer, Grandma Duck has had various given names over the years. In a story by Riley Thomson from 1950, she was named "Elviry"[11] and in a story from 1953 she was given the name "Abigail".[11] Don Rosa later gave her the name "Elvira" in his comic books series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck.

According to artist/writer Don Rosa, Grandma was born around 1855. In the comic strips by Taliaferro and Karp, it is mentioned that in her youth she was a pioneer in the American migration to the west, riding a covered wagon and participating in many Indian Wars.[13][14] Later, she married Humperdink Duck, and they had three children named Quackmore (Donald's father), Daphne (Gladstone's mother) and Eider (Fethry's father in the non-Barks duck universe). Grandma Duck helped to raise her great-grandsons, Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck (her daughter-in-law Hortense's grandsons and granddaughter Della's sons). In most comic book stories, as well as other media that handles Donald Duck's childhood, it was Grandma Duck who filled the role of Donald's caretaker.

Grandma made her animated debut in the 1960 Wonderful World of Color episode This is Your Life, Donald Duck, where she was voiced by June Foray. The episode depicted her great difficulty in raising Donald, a strong-willed and ill-tempered duckling from the moment he was hatched. She also made a brief appearance in Sport Goofy in Soccermania she was now voiced by Russi Taylor, a non-speaking cameo in Mickey's Christmas Carol, and can be spotted in the background of the DuckTales episode Horse Scents.

Second generation

[edit]

Quackmore Duck

[edit]

Quackmore Duck (born 1875) is the father of Donald Duck, and has been variously depicted with or without a moustache. His parents are Humperdink and Elvira "Grandma" Duck. He was born in Duckburg, and from and early age displayed a heavy temper. He worked at his parents' farm until 1902 when he met Hortense McDuck and they became engaged. He started working for her brother Scrooge McDuck.

By 1908, he was helping Hortense and her sister Matilda McDuck run their brother's empire as Scrooge's chief accountant, mainly because Scrooge thought that as a possible heir, he would be motivated to work hard and stay honest. In 1920, he married Hortense and within the year became the father of twins: Donald and Della. The couple became parents when they already were more than 40 years old, according to Don Rosa.

Quackmore's image is visible in several photographs in the DuckTales reboot premier, Woo-oo!, and is also mentioned by name in the episode by Webby Vanderquack.

Hortense McDuck

[edit]

Hortense Duck (née McDuck; born 1876) is married to Quackmore Duck. She is also Donald's mother, Humperdink and Elvira's daughter-in-law, Daphne and Eider's sister-in-law, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie's maternal grandmother. She was born in Scotland and is the youngest sister of Scrooge McDuck.

Daphne Duck

[edit]

Daphne Gander (née Duck) is Donald's paternal aunt, Hortense's sister-in-law, Huey, Dewey, and Louie's maternal grand-aunt, and the mother of Gladstone Gander. In the story "The Sign of The Triple Distelfink" (1998), Don Rosa explains that Gladestone's good luck was inherited from his mother, after a traveling worker painted a giant sign of the "Triple Distelfink" on her parents' stable on the day of her birth. The symbol was supposed to bring the baby luck, and it did: Daphne was always incredibly lucky. She worked in her parents' farm until at least 1902. Later, she stopped working and started living on the things she won in contests. She married Goostave Gander, and in 1920 became the mother of Gladstone Gander. Gladstone was born on her birthday and under the protection of the same symbol as his mother.

Eider Duck

[edit]

Eider Duck is Donald's paternal uncle, Hortense's brother-in-law, and Huey, Dewey, and Louie's maternal grand-uncle. He was first mentioned in August 1944 in the story "The Fighting Falcon" by Carl Barks. In this story, Donald receives a falcon called Farragut as a present by his Uncle Eider who does not live in Duckburg. Farragut arrives inside a big box brought to Donald's house by an expressman. Barks never mentioned Eider again but Don Rosa decided to include him in his Duck Family Tree.

According to Rosa, Eider is the son of Humperdink and Elvira Duck and the father of Abner and Fethry Duck. As of 1902, he worked on his parents' farm. He later married Lulubelle Loon and became the father of at least two sons, Abner "Whitewater" Duck and Fethry Duck.

Lulubelle Loon

[edit]

Lulubelle Duck (née Loon) is married to Eider Duck and the mother of Abner and Fethry Duck, according to Don Rosa's version of the Duck family tree. She does not have any comic appearance so far, not even a cameo one.

Sheriff Dan Duck

[edit]

Sheriff Dan Duck (aka Cousin Dan) is an old cousin of Donald who happens to be sheriff of a Western town called Bent Spur Gulch. Dan originally has thick, dark-grey eyebrows, a long, dark-grey mustache and long, dark-grey hair on the left and right sides of his head. He is generally shown holding a crutch. He appeared in two comic stories, "Daredevil Deputy" by Jack Bradbury,[15] where he asks Donald to replace him while he recovers from "a touch of rheumatism", and "Trigger Gulch Gang" by Tony Strobl,[16] where he has only a brief appearance on the first page.

A remake of "Daredevil Deputy" was drawn by Chilean cartoonist Vicar for the Danish publisher Egmont. It's called "Sheriff for a Day", first published in 1978.[17]

Third generation

[edit]

Donald Duck

[edit]

Donald Duck (born June 9, c. 1920) is the ill-tempered but good-hearted son of Quackmore and Hortense Duck, and the most well-known member of the family. He is the nephew of Scrooge McDuck, the twin brother of Della Duck, and the uncle of her triplet sons Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck. His girlfriend is Daisy Duck. He does not have any children of his own, but is the legal guardian of his nephews, as seen for example in the 1942 film The New Spirit in which Donald lists the boys as dependants on his income tax form. In the 1959 cartoon How to Have an Accident at Work Donald and Daisy have an unnamed toddler son.

Della Duck

[edit]

Della Duck (called Dumbella in Donald's Nephews; born June 9, c. 1920) is the mother of Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, the younger twin sister of their uncle Donald Duck, and the niece of their grand-uncle Scrooge McDuck. She was first described as Donald Duck's cousin,[18] but was later referred to as Donald's twin sister. She was first mentioned in a 1937 Donald Duck Sunday strip on October 17, 1937, in which she writes a letter explaining to Donald that she is sending her sons to stay with him.[18]

Della made her first animated appearance in DuckTales (2017), with her sons discovering she was previously a companion of Scrooge and Donald's in their adventures. Dewey and his brothers set out to investigate the cause of her disappearance along with Webby Vanderquack. In the Christmas episode, "Last Christmas", it is revealed that as kids, Donald used to insult Della by calling her "Dumbella", a reference to her name in Donald's Nephews. She is voiced by Paget Brewster.[19] Della Duck was married to ? Duck and had three triplet sons, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Huey, Dewey, and Louie's father

[edit]

The identity of Huey, Dewey, and Louie's father is something of a mystery. The character does not appear in any stories, but he did partially appear in the 1993 Duck family tree drawn by Don Rosa. In this illustration, Rosa partially concealed the character's face with a bird. While his first name was also hidden, his last name is revealed to be Duck. His face was fully shown in the unofficial Duck family tree by Mark Worden and first published in several fanzines, which labeled him "? Duck" and showed him with a flattop haircut and human-like ears.

In Huey, Dewey, and Louie's first appearance in a 1937 Donald Duck Sunday strip, Della writes to Donald that the boys had placed a firecracker under their father's chair as a prank and that their father had been sent to the hospital.[18] This was the reason why the boys first showed up at Donald's house. The father has not been mentioned again in the chronicles. In "The Richest Duck in the World", when Scrooge mentions that the few family members he had had disappeared, the boys respond, "We know how that feels!"

Fethry Duck

[edit]

Donald's cousin Fethry Duck was created for the non-US market by Disney Studio Program employees Dick Kinney (writer) and Al Hubbard (artist) and was first featured in the story "The Health Nut", published on August 2, 1964.[20] Kinney and Hubbard created Fethry to be a beatnik member of the Duck family (the definition being "a person who rejects or avoids conventional behavior"). Fethry quickly adopts new hobbies and lifestyles and eagerly pursues the latest fads and trends, causing chaos for friends and family in the process. In his first story, Fethry is introduced as moving to Duckburg and having a prior acquaintance with Donald, who is already aware of Fethry's obsessive tendency. Fethry wears a stocking cap, for reasons revealed in "The Health Nut": he was convinced by a self-help book author that one's head is healthier when it's kept hot. Fethry's trademark sweater, usually bearing a black stripe, is typically a different color depending on which country the story is published in.

Only three stories with Fethry initially appeared in the United States (Donald Duck #105–106 and Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #304). Later, some of the Fethry Studio Program stories were reprinted in the Wonderful World of Disney giveaway magazine published in 1969–1970 for Gulf Oil. However, the character became popular in foreign markets. In Europe, Fethry has appeared in numerous Italian-produced comics. In Brazil, the character had his own comic book title during the 1980s, which lasted 56 issues. Hubbard and Kinney developed more than fifty comic stories with Fethry.[21] The vast majority were published in English in Australia between 1964 and 1969, often in one-shot comics billed Donald and Fethry Duck—suggesting a comedic duo—or simply Fethry Duck.[22][23]

Since Fethry was not created by Carl Barks and was never used in any of Barks' stories, popular American artist/writer Don Rosa does not consider Fethry part of the Duck family. However, due to editorial pressure from supervisor Byron Erickson at the helm of Egmont, Rosa reluctantly included him in his Duck Family Tree. According to this diagram, Fethry is the son of Eider Duck and Lulubelle Loon, the cousin of Donald Duck and the brother of Abner "Whitewater" Duck (from Barks' 1962 story, Log Jockey).[24]

Fethry also works with Donald for Scrooge McDuck's secret organization, originally called the P.I.A. (in Italian), as an assistant of the detective Umperio Bogarto (in 1996) and as Moby Duck's First Mate (in the early 2000s).[25] Donald has often teamed up with Fethry to work for Scrooge (usually with disastrous results), with Donald being the "straight man" and Fethry the "funny man", although Donald's reactions to Fethry and attempts to neutralize him are often as humorous as Fethry's mishaps. In 1970s stories drawn by Tony Strobl, Fethry is the owner of a hyper-friendly dog named Poochie. Several Brazilian stories also featured Fethry's pet.[26]

Since the early 1970s, Fethry has occasionally donned superhero garb as the Red Bat (Portuguese: Morcego Vermelho) in Brazilian Disney comics. The Red Bat was created by artist Carlos Edgar Herrero and writer Ivan Saidenberg.[27]

In 2018, Fethry made his first animated appearance in the DuckTales episode "The Depths of Cousin Fethry!", voiced by Tom Kenny. He is depicted as the caretaker of one of Scrooge's undersea research facilities that Huey and Dewey visit. While they are at first put off by his odd behavior, the two come to respect Fethry after he protects them from a sea monster. He later returns in "Moonvasion" to help protect the Earth from the invading Moonlanders and in "The Last Adventure!" to attend Webby Vanderquack's birthday party.

Whitewater Duck

[edit]

Whitewater Duck[28] was created by Carl Barks and used by him only in the story "Log Jockey", published in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #267 in December 1962. According to that story, he is a distant cousin of Donald and Huey, Dewey, and Louie,[29] and works as a lumberjack in the woods.

Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree states that Whitewater's real name is Abner, and "Whitewater" is a nickname. He is also shown to be a son of Eider Duck and Lulubelle Loon and Fethry Duck's brother, making him Donald's first cousin.

Dudly D. Duck

[edit]

Dudly D. Duck is a cousin of Donald who appears in the comic story "Why All the Crabby Ducks?" by Vic Lockman and Mike Arens.[30] He is a flopped architect and inventor who was responsible for the construction of the "Jog Tunnel", which annoys the citizens of Duckburg because it really has a jog in it, and for the bad planning of Duckburg's streets. Therefore, Dudly became very unpopular and was forced to live isolated in a lonely street, including his name was forgotten until the day that Donald discovers who planned the "Jog Tunnel", and then his girlfriend Daisy Duck reveals who is Dudly Duck through the newspaper where she works as reporter. A reporter rival of Daisy ends up discovering that Dudly is related to Donald, who in turn becomes unpopular too.

Dimwitty Duck

[edit]

Dimwitty Duck (originally just called Dim-Witty) is a duck who was introduced in the comic story "The Vanishing Banister",[31] where he appears as an assistant of Donald Duck, who in turn appears working as a private detective. Daisy Duck has a brief appearance in the beginning of this one. But there are some old American stories with Dimwitty and Daisy where Donald does not appear. In the story "On Disappearing Island",[32] Dimwitty appeared for the first time as Moby's ship hand and from then on he became the most common supporting character in Moby's stories. Dimwitty is incredibly clumsy but he is loyal and subservient, and maybe that's the reason why Moby keeps him as his ship hand. But a close kinship between them could also explain this fact. Dimwitty is taller than Donald and Moby. In some 1970s stories, Dimwitty was shown as a friend of Gus Goose.

There are some old stories where it's revealed that Dimwitty's surname is also "Duck". The first one was "The Fix-it-fiasco",[33] which also features Daisy.

Just like Moby, Dimwitty had also a cameo appearance in the Darkwing Duck / Ducktales crossover called "Dangerous Currency" from 2011.

Moby Duck

[edit]

Moby Duck, whose name is a spoof of the novel Moby-Dick, was created by writer Vic Lockman and illustrator Tony Strobl in the comic-book story "A Whale of an Adventure" in Donald Duck #112 (March 1967).[34] He made his only major animated appearance in the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color episode "Pacifically Peeking" (October 6, 1968),[34] and had a cameo appearance in the episode "House of Crime" of the House of Mouse TV series. He first appeared in Donald Duck #112 where he is seen saving Donald from drowning at sea, after Donald was forced to accept Moby's proposal to work as his helper, since Moby's porpoise Porpy pretended to be a threatening shark. Later that year Moby got his own comic book title which ran 11 issues until 1970, and then from 1973 to 1978 (issues #12-30). Illustrators of American Moby Duck stories include Strobl, Kay Wright, and Pete Alvarado. Not seen in the US for two decades, he was used in a comic subseries produced in Italy during the 2000s. Moby had two cameo appearances in the 2010s: the first one was in an Italian story from 2010,[35] and the second one was in the Darkwing Duck / Ducktales crossover called "Dangerous Currency" from 2011.[36]

Moby is a relative of Donald Duck as seen in "Sea Dog's Holiday" by Vic Lockman and Kay Wright.[37] There are American old stories where Moby seems to be familiar to other members of Donald's paternal family as well, like Grandma Duck and Gladstone Gander. In the comic story "The Dread Sea Adventure" by Lockman and Wright,[38] Grandma exclaims when she sees Moby, "Moby Duck, you salty old sea biscuit!", making it clear that she knows him very well.

Fourth generation

[edit]

Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck

[edit]

Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck (born c. 1940) are Donald's three nephews, grand-nephews of his uncle Scrooge McDuck and identical triplet sons of Della Duck.

Dugan Duck

[edit]

Dugan Duck is Fethry Duck's nephew who is a little bit younger than Huey, Dewey, and Louie. According to the Brazilian comic story "O Nascimento Do Biquinho",[39] he is the son of Fethry's sister, who lives in the periphery of Duckburg. His English name is a reference to The Yellow Kid, Mickey Dugan.

Coot kin

[edit]

The Coot family, typically called the Coot kin in stories, are the relatives of Grandma Duck and, along with the Clan McDuck, constitute the third major branch of Donald's family tree. The name "Coot" was used by several comic authors including Carl Barks, but Don Rosa was the first to show their relationship to Donald. The members of the family are depicted as white Pekin ducks like Donald, although real-life coots are typically black.

Cornelius Coot

[edit]

Cornelius Coot (1790–1880) founded Duckburg (and the real-world, but since closed Mickey's Toontown Fair at the Magic Kingdom). He first appeared as a statue in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #138 in the 1952 story "Statuesque Spendthrifts" by Carl Barks. His statue and legacy has later appeared in many other stories. Although Cornelius was a well-known figure to readers of Disney comics, his character history was not told until Don Rosa began using the character in the late 1980s. The following history is mainly based on Rosa's stories, especially "His Majesty, McDuck", first published in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #14.

A statue of Cornelius holding an ear of corn is present in Mickey's Toontown Fair in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Before 1996, the land was known as Mickey's Birthdayland/Starland, and was set in the city of Duckburg.

Cornelius Coot made his first television appearance in the DuckTales episode, "The Golden Armory of Cornelius Coot". The episode retells the story of Coot's founding of Duckburg, though the Spanish are replaced by Beagles in the story. Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Webby explore the catacombs under Fort Duckburg in search of his treasure, discovering a series of giant popcorn makers that Coot used to imitate the sound of gunfire and scare the Beagles into retreating.

Clinton Coot

[edit]

Clinton Coot (1830-1910)[40] was first mentioned in Uncle Scrooge Adventures #27 in the story "Guardians of the Lost Library", first published in July, 1994. There he was introduced as the son of Cornelius Coot and the founder of The Junior Woodchucks, inspired by the book given to him by his father.

In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck it is revealed that he is the father of Grandma Duck. In Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree, Clinton is married to Gertrude Gadwall and their two children are Grandma Duck (Elvira Coot) and Casey Coot.

He is named after Bill Clinton, who was running for President of the United States when Don Rosa created the character.[41]

Clinton makes his animated debut in the 2018 TV show Legend of the Three Caballeros, voiced by Thomas Lennon. In the series, Clinton was an archaeologist obsessed with his ancestor Don Dugo and his adventuring companions, who were the original Three Caballeros. He founded the New Quackmore Institute near the site of one of their headquarters, building a cabana over the base itself, but his business partner Baroness Von Sheldgoose would seize control over the rest of the land the campus sat on. After his death, he arranged for the cabana to be left to his great-grandson Donald and the descendants of the other two Caballeros, Panchito Pistoles and José Carioca.

Gertrude Gadwall

[edit]

Gertrude Coot (née Gadwall) is married to Clinton Coot and the mother of Casey and Elvira Coot ("Grandma Duck"). Like Lulubelle Loon, Gertrude has appeared only in Don Rosa's version of the Duck family tree.

Casey Coot

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Casey Coot (born 1860)[40] first appeared in "Last Sled to Dawson", first published in June, 1988. He is introduced as an unsuccessful gold prospector and friend of Scrooge McDuck during his years in Klondike. In need of money he sold to the significantly more successful Scrooge McDuck his share in Duckburg, Calisota, USA. His share included "Killmule Hill" which, renamed to "Killmotor Hill", comprises the land where Scrooge's money bin stands. He later appeared in The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Part 8 and Hearts of the Yukon. In The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Part 10 it is revealed that he and Grandma Duck are brother and sister.

In Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree he is featured as a grandson of Cornelius Coot, a son of Clinton Coot and Gertrude Gadwall. He married Gretchen Grebe and they had at least two kids named Fanny and Cuthbert Coot, being the maternal grandfather of Fanny's son Gus Goose.

Gretchen Grebe

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Gretchen Coot (née Grebe) is married to Casey Coot, the mother of Cuthbert and Fanny Coot, and the maternal grandmother of Gus Goose.

Fanny Coot

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Fanny Coot is the mother of Donald's cousin Gus Goose; she was first mentioned in the Donald Duck comic strip of May 9, 1938 by Bob Karp & Al Taliaferro where Gus first appeared. Gus's mother's surname was not revealed in this comic strip, where she identifies herself in a letter to Donald as "Aunt Fanny".[42] In Don Rosa's Duck Family Tree she is featured as a daughter of Casey Coot and his wife Gretchen Grebe, and so a niece of Elvira Coot, Donald's paternal grandmother, and first cousin of Donald's father, Quackmore Duck. Fanny also had a brother named Cuthbert Coot and she married Luke Goose, and then became the mother of Gus Goose.

Cuthbert Coot

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Cuthbert Coot was introduced in the story "Webfooted Wrangler," first published in April 1945, as a distant cousin of Donald Duck and a rancher. In Don Rosa's Duck family tree he is included as a member of the Coot Kin as son of Casey Coot and Gretchen Grebe.

Kildare Coot

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Kildare Coot was introduced by Italian artist Romano Scarpa as a highly eccentric fourth cousin of Donald Duck in the story "Sgrizzo, il papero più balzano del mondo" (roughly translated as "Kildare Coot, the weirdest duck in the world"), first published on October 25, 1964. Though his exact relationship to Donald remains uncertain his last name suggests he belongs to the Coot Kin and that he is related to Donald through Elvira Coot, Donald's paternal grandmother. Curiously, Kildare usually treats Gideon McDuck, Scrooge's half-brother, as his uncle. He calls Gideon 'Zio', which means uncle in Italian.[43] Kildare and his fellow Andy Ascott (original Italian name) appear as reporters of Gideon's newspaper, The Cricket, in some Italian stories.

Goose family

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Luke Goose

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Luke Goose (sometimes called Luke the Goose) is the father of Donald's cousin Gus Goose. He was originally supposed to be Gladstone Gander's father,[44][45] Daphne Duck's husband and Gus's uncle, but Carl Barks later changed his mind, making Goostave Gander (who was originally Gladstone's adoptive father after Luke and Daphne "overate at a free-lunch picnic") Gladstone's biological father and Daphne's husband. Luke the Goose disappeared from the tree.

When Don Rosa created his Duck Family Tree, he used Luke Goose (removing "the" from his name) and made him the husband of Fanny Coot and Gus Goose's father.

Gus Goose

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Gus Goose is Donald Duck's second cousin, and the great-nephew of Grandma Duck. He debuted on May 9, 1938, in Al Taliaferro and Bob Karp's Donald Duck comic strip, before making an animated appearance in the 1939 short Donald's Cousin Gus.[46] Because the animation studio took much longer to produce a film and worked with a schedule much farther ahead than the comic strip, Gus, like Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie "first saw the light of day" in the animation department, with the comic strip being based on the film that was in-the-works.[47] Gus's main personality traits are laziness and gluttony.[46]

Within Disney comics, Gus is usually shown living as a farmhand on Grandma Duck's farm outside of Duckburg. Along with his gluttony, Gus is quite lazy, often doing little if any work on Grandma's farm. He also has a tendency of falling asleep at random occasions, sometimes even standing up. On occasion Gus has even shown signs of ingenuity as to finding methods or solutions to make his chores much easier for him and at times even automating them so he does not have to work at all.

Gus made no appearances in DuckTales, but there is a background character in the series, Vacation Van Honk, who looks similar to him.

Gus appeared in the 2000s animated series Disney's House of Mouse, as the club's gluttonous chef, speaking only in honks rather than words. He also made non-speaking cameo appearances in both Mickey's Christmas Carol and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The friend and neighbor Gustav Goose from Quack Pack is probably not the same as Cousin Gus since there are very few similarities (aside from the name and general size of the character). Some confusion is also caused by the German comicbook version of Gladstone Gander being referred to as "Gustav Gans" ("Gustav Goose").

In Danish comic book stories, Gus Goose has appeared as the boyfriend of a classy and rich anthropomorphic swan named Cissy Swann.[48] In Italy, a nephew of him named Pepper appeared in two stories.[49]

Gander family

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Goostave Gander

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Goostave Gander is Gladstone Gander's father. In some early stories he is married to Matilda McDuck, Scrooge's sister and adopted Gladstone, but Carl Barks later had him married to Daphne Duck instead. They are considered the parents of Gladstone Gander; although his wife and son's luck does not include him. "Us Ganders have never sunk low enough to associate with you Ducks!", exclaimed Gladstone to Donald in "Race to the South Seas" by Carl Barks,[50] suggesting that there is a mutual antipathy between his father's family and his mother's. In this same story, Gladstone exclaims, "Us Ganders have never worked!",[51] what suggests that originally Gladstone's luck came from his father's side.

Gladstone Gander

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Gladstone Gander is a Walt Disney fictional character created in 1948 by comic artist and writer Carl Barks. He is an anthropomorphic male goose (or gander) who possess exceptional good luck that grants him anything he desires as well as protecting from any harm. This is in contrast to his cousin Donald Duck who is often characterized for having bad luck. Gladstone is also a rival of Donald for the affection of Daisy Duck.

Shamrock Gander

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Shamrock Gander is Gladstone's nephew. Shamrock first appeared in a story printed in Duck Album Four Color #649 where he was shown to be as lucky as his uncle Gladstone. He has only been used a few times since; one example is a Brazilian comic story where he competes with Huey, Dewey, and Louie.[52]

See also

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References

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Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia
from Grokipedia
The Duck family is a fictional clan of anthropomorphic ducks central to the Disney universe, particularly in comics and animation, renowned for their adventurous exploits, comedic antics, and strong familial ties in comics, shorts, films, and television series like DuckTales. The family was originally developed in Disney comics by Carl Barks in the mid-20th century. At the heart of the family is Donald Duck, an irascible but well-meaning anthropomorphic duck who often serves as a sailor and protector to his rambunctious nephews, the identical triplets Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck, whose youthful curiosity frequently leads to chaotic escapades. Donald's wealthy uncle, Scrooge McDuck, the world's richest duck and a globe-trotting treasure hunter, frequently involves the family in high-stakes quests for lost artifacts and riches, drawing from his vast experience as an adventurer. Donald's twin sister, Della Duck, the bold mother of the triplets, embodies the family's exploratory spirit; after being stranded on the Moon for ten years due to a rocket mishap, she reunites with her relatives in the 2017 DuckTales reboot, showcasing her resilience and piloting skills. Other notable members include Grandma Duck, the wise matriarch who maintains the family farm, and Donald's longtime girlfriend Daisy Duck, who provides emotional support amid the clan's frequent turmoil. The Duck family primarily resides in the bustling fictional city of Duckburg, where their stories blend humor, action, and themes of loyalty, originating from classic Disney comics and evolving through modern animations that emphasize intergenerational bonds and daring heroism.

Development

Origins in Carl Barks' Comics

, who began contributing to in the early 1940s, significantly shaped the Duck family through his storytelling in and other titles. Although had debuted in in 1934, Barks' first comic featuring him was the 1942 adventure "Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold," where Donald is portrayed as an adventurous yet hapless everyman often entangled in mishaps with his family. Barks expanded Donald's world by integrating established relatives, emphasizing everyday struggles and humorous conflicts that grounded the family's dynamics. The triplets , first introduced in the 1937 newspaper strip "Donald's Nephews," became central to Barks' narratives starting with his early stories, such as "The Victory Garden War" in 1943, where they assist Donald in comedic wartime efforts. Grandma Duck, debuting in the 1943 newspaper strip, appeared in Barks' as the stern matriarch, notably in "Barbeque" (1950), providing a contrast to Donald's chaos through her no-nonsense farm life. Barks depicted Donald's irritable personality—marked by quick temper, poor luck, and futile attempts at heroism—alongside his naval service background, often showing him as a seaman on leave dealing with domestic squabbles, which highlighted the family's resilient, bickering bonds. Early hints of the Duck family's lineage emerged in Barks' 1948 story "The Old Castle's Secret," where Donald and the nephews explore Scrooge McDuck's ancestral Scottish castle, uncovering portraits of forebears like the knight Sir Eider McDuck and pirate-like figures such as Sir Quackly McDuck, suggesting a storied heritage of adventure and misfortune. These elements evoked medieval and buccaneering ancestors without rigid details, serving plot twists rather than . Barks intentionally kept relations loose and inconsistent across stories to prioritize humorous, self-contained escapades over a fixed , allowing flexible interactions that fueled the . This approach was later formalized into a comprehensive tree by .

Expansions by Don Rosa

In 1995, Don Rosa published "The Duck Family Tree" as a two-page centerspread in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #600, systematically organizing and expanding upon the Duck family characters originally introduced by into a multi-generational lineage spanning over 300 years. This illustration named numerous obscure relatives, such as Gladstone Gander's mother Daphne Duck and various Coot kin, while resolving key ambiguities in Barks' canon, including establishing —Donald's twin sister—as the mother of , who were previously depicted without specified parentage. Rosa drew directly from Barks' unpublished notes and sketches to assign specific names and backstories, such as designating Quackmore Duck (born circa 1875) as Donald's father and providing him a rural Duckburg farming background tied to Grandma Duck's lineage. Similarly, McDuck (born circa 1876), Scrooge McDuck's temperamental sister, was named as Donald's mother, with her backstory emphasizing a feisty personality inherited from the McDuck clan's Scottish roots. These additions created consistent identities for previously vague figures. The tree integrated pivotal McDuck-Duck marriages to bridge the two clans, most notably the 1890s union of McDuck and Quackmore Duck, which produced and Della and solidified the family's American branch. Rosa further enriched this with a fictional history of Duckburg, detailing economic shifts like the Ducks' 19th-century migration from rural farms to urban opportunities amid the era, and migratory patterns such as the McDucks' transatlantic journey from in the 1880s to join Duck relatives in the U.S. These elements portrayed the family as embodying immigrant ambition and economic resilience in a anthropomorphic American narrative.

Modern Interpretations in Animation

The 1987 DuckTales animated series marked a significant expansion of the Duck family in television animation, portraying as the wealthy uncle hosting his nephew and Donald's three young nephews, , for adventurous escapades in Duckburg and beyond. This setup established the core family dynamics in animation post-Barks' comics, emphasizing Donald's role as the beleaguered guardian of the energetic triplets while highlighting Scrooge's protective yet adventurous influence over the group. Although the triplets' mother was alluded to in brief visual references, such as family photos in the opening sequence, her identity and remained undeveloped in the series. In 1996, the Quack Pack series reimagined the Duck family with the triplets aged up to teenagers, shifting the focus to Donald's daily life as a single uncle navigating their rebellious antics and modern suburban challenges in Duckburg. This portrayal underscored Donald's ongoing central role in the family unit, portraying him as a hapless but devoted caregiver amid the nephews' distinct personalities—Huey as the level-headed leader, Dewey as the thrill-seeker, and Louie as the laid-back schemer—without delving into extended relatives or origin stories. The 2017 DuckTales reboot revitalized the Duck family with deeper layers, prominently introducing as Donald's twin sister and ' mother, who had vanished a decade earlier during a daring expedition alongside . Her character was fleshed out as a bold pilot and explorer, with the season 2 episode "Whatever Happened to ?!" detailing her survival on the after a rocket crash, her resourceful adaptations using lunar resources, and her unyielding drive to reunite with her family. This adaptation amplified family tensions, particularly a longstanding rivalry between Della and Scrooge stemming from their shared adventuring past, while teasing ' unnamed father's identity through subtle hints but leaving it unresolved to maintain ambiguity. Subsequent DuckTales shorts and episodes in the late 2010s and early 2020s, including compilations on Disney+, reinforced Donald's enduring family anchor, depicting him balancing his naval career with supporting Della's return and the nephews' growth into young adventurers. As of 2025, no major new animated series or films have altered the Duck family structure, though ongoing fan interest and discussions around potential revivals often draw on Don Rosa's comprehensive as a baseline while incorporating the reboot's tweaks for dramatic purposes, such as Della's expanded .

Family Trees

Carl Barks' Original Tree

Carl Barks established the foundational structure of the Duck family in his Disney comic stories from the 1940s through the 1960s, positioning Donald Duck as the central figure surrounded by a small circle of immediate relatives whose connections served primarily to drive narrative plots rather than form a rigid genealogy. Donald's paternal grandmother, Grandma Duck (also known as Elvira Coot), functions as the family matriarch, depicted as a stern, farm-dwelling elder who often provides comic relief or grounding in tales of Donald's misadventures. The Huey, Dewey, and Louie triplets appear as Donald's nephews, the sons of his sister Della Duck (sometimes referred to as Dumbella), though Barks never detailed Della's husband or the boys' exact parentage beyond this sibling link, emphasizing instead their role as energetic sidekicks in Donald's schemes. Barks introduced loose familial ties to through Donald's mother, McDuck, who is established as Scrooge's younger sister in several stories, making Scrooge Donald's maternal uncle and creating opportunities for wealth-related conflicts between the frugal and his hapless nephew. Other relatives, such as the boastfully lucky —portrayed as Donald's cousin—appear sporadically to highlight Donald's misfortunes, with their shared lineage implied but not deeply explored; for instance, Gladstone's introduction in the 1948 story "Luck of the Duck" underscores his rivalry with Donald without specifying precise branches of the . Barks avoided assigning fixed names or backstories to Donald's or Della's parents, treating parental figures as off-panel influences to keep the focus on contemporary antics rather than historical depth. Ancestral connections emerge informally through adventure plots, where Barks implied a long line of adventurous Ducks without constructing a formal lineage; for example, in the 1952 tale "The Lost Peg-Leg Mine," Donald and Scrooge encounter desert hazards tied to old family lore, evoking rugged forebears, while knightly ancestors like Sir Quackly McDuck are referenced in the 1948 story "The Old Castle's Secret," where the Ducks visit a medieval Scottish castle linked to Scrooge's lineage, suggesting knightly heritage on the McDuck side. Viking-era Ducks are alluded to in broader historical escapades, such as those involving ancient treasures, reinforcing the family's adventurous legacy without naming specific individuals. These elements prioritize thematic —exploring themes of , , and —over exhaustive . Barks created private family tree sketches for his own reference, never intending them for publication, with the earliest known version from the outlining core relationships including the marriages of Quackmore Duck (Donald's father) to Hortense McDuck and Goosetave Gander to Matilda McDuck (Scrooge's sister), resulting in , Della, and Gladstone as key descendants. This rough diagram, featuring names but no illustrations of characters, was posthumously reproduced in The Carl Barks Library of Walt Disney's (Volume 6, 1985, p. 476). In the , following his retirement, Barks shared additional unpublished sketches and notes in correspondence with fans, refining earlier ideas—such as clarifying adoptions and sibling orders—though these remained informal and were later compiled in fan analyses rather than official . These documents reveal Barks' evolving but understated approach to the family's structure, later formalized in detail by .

Don Rosa's Comprehensive Genealogy

Don Rosa's comprehensive genealogy is depicted in a detailed illustrated chart first published in , tracing a vertical lineage of the Duck family from medieval ancestors in the to modern descendants in the . The layout organizes the genealogy into primary branches representing the interconnected Duck, McDuck, Coot, and Gander lineages, with horizontal lines indicating marriages and vertical lines descending to offspring, allowing for clear visualization of generational progressions and inter-family ties. This structure incorporates influences from ' earlier, less formalized family depictions while providing a more expansive and named framework. Among the key innovations in Rosa's tree are the explicit naming of Fethry Duck and Abner "Whitewater" Duck as cousins to (sons of his uncle Eider Duck), establishing them as part of the extended third generation. Don Rosa reluctantly included Fethry in the family tree due to publisher pressure stemming from the character's popularity in Europe and Brazil. And the identification of Lulubelle Loon as the wife of Eider Duck and thus the daughter-in-law of Grandma Duck (Elvira Coot). These additions fill gaps in prior characterizations, creating a cohesive extended family network that integrates lesser-known relatives into the established canon. The chart includes rich historical annotations that enrich its narrative depth, detailing migrations of family branches from origins in and to settlements in America, various professions held by members such as Dan Duck in , and specific fictional dates like the birth of Humperdink Duck, Donald's grandfather. These elements provide contextual , portraying the family as participants in broader historical events like westward expansion and industrial pursuits. Complementing the tree, Rosa's 12-part comic series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, serialized between 1994 and 2002, expands on many of the chart's events and relationships through biographical narratives focused on Scrooge McDuck's life, thereby animating the static genealogy with detailed adventures and motivations.

Variations in DuckTales and Other Media

In the 1987 DuckTales animated series, the Duck family tree is simplified to emphasize Scrooge McDuck's central role as the wealthy adventurer and guardian, with Donald Duck serving as the beleaguered uncle to the permanent wards Huey, Dewey, and Louie, who live at Scrooge's mansion without mention of their parents. This adaptation omits Della Duck entirely, treating the triplets as Donald's direct responsibility and resolving potential complexities from earlier comic genealogies by focusing on immediate family dynamics for episodic storytelling. The 2017 DuckTales reboot diverges further by expanding Della Duck's presence and backstory, portraying her as absent for approximately 10 years due to a space expedition gone wrong, a revelation central to her character arc in episodes like "What Ever Happened to Della Duck?!". This narrative integrates elements from Don Rosa's comprehensive genealogy—such as Della as the triplets' mother—while altering timelines for dramatic effect, with the boys raised primarily by Donald during her absence, and Scrooge's involvement adding tension upon her return. The series also introduces April, May, and June as Webby Vanderquack's close friends and fellow Junior Woodchucks, depicted as independent young ducks with indirect connections to the Duck clan via their aunt Daisy Duck, rather than establishing firm familial branches. Earlier media, such as the 1930s Mickey Mouse shorts, largely disregard the Duck family's extended relations, presenting Donald as an isolated, hot-tempered character who interacts with and in comedic scenarios without references to siblings, nephews, or ancestors until the nephews' debut in 1938's "Donald's Nephews". Similarly, the 2021 series centers Donald's adventures with and but introduces no new Duck family members or alterations to established ties, prioritizing mythological quests over genealogical depth. These animated variations contrast with the core structure of Don Rosa's 1993 family tree by streamlining or reinterpreting relations to suit narrative needs, such as enhancing emotional stakes through absences or friendships. Unofficial fan-created trees often blend Rosa's comic framework with DuckTales reboot specifics, though no official updates to the genealogy have been issued as of 2025.

Ancestors

Medieval and Early Ancestors

The Duck family's fictional pre-modern lineage traces back to legendary figures from medieval Europe, as depicted in various . The earliest named ancestor is Andold "Wild Duck" Temerary, a 10th-century British who defended against Viking invasions as the of Castle Walstaen in . Featured prominently in Marco Rota's stories collected in Walt Disney's : Tales of Andold Wild Duck (Fantagraphics, 2025), Andold's bold exploits against Norse raiders exemplify the family's enduring theme of daring adventure and exploration. By the 11th century, the lineage connects to knightly forebears with Scottish ties, as implied in ' The Old Castle's Secret (Four Color #189, 1948), where ancestral castles and noble defenses evoke the Duck clan's early Highland roots, later expanded by to include direct Duck progenitors. These medieval knights symbolize the family's chivalric heritage amid feudal conflicts. Viking encounters and pirate-like escapades, such as treasure burials implied in Barks' time-travel tales, further underscore these early forebears' ties to high-seas lore without specific named figures beyond the core lineage.

19th-Century Forebears

The 19th-century forebears of the Duck family represent the roots that established in his genealogy, emphasizing their contributions to the settlement of Duckburg and the rural American landscape. Seth Duck, active in the early 1800s, was a and early in the Duckburg area, renowned for his heroism in warning the local fort of an impending attack, which earned him a in Duckburg . According to Rosa's , Seth served as the grandfather of Humperdink Duck, linking the family's medieval European origins to their American establishment through generations of pioneers. On the maternal side, Elvira Coot (born October 1855), who later married Humperdink Duck, descended from a line of rural migrants tied to the founding of Duckburg. Her father, Clinton Coot (born 1840, died 1910), was a whose family had migrated from rural areas to contribute to early Calisota settlements, while her grandfather, Cornelius Coot (born 1790, died after 1902), is credited as the founder of Duckburg; he sold the land for Scrooge McDuck's money bin to the city in 1902. This Coot lineage reflects the broader pattern of 19th-century rural-to-urban migrations in , providing the Duck family with deep ties to the region's agricultural heritage. Humperdink Duck's parents remain unnamed in Rosa's canon but are implied as pioneers whose lives intertwined with the expanding , as depicted in stories exploring alternate family histories. In "The Duck Who Never Was" (1994), Donald Duck's reflections on his lineage highlight the pioneering spirit of these forebears, portraying them as hardy settlers navigating the challenges of 19th-century America. The historical context of the (1848–1855) further influenced early Duck-McDuck connections, as the era's economic opportunities drew Scottish McDuck immigrants like Scrooge's family to Calisota, setting the stage for later inter-family unions while the Ducks solidified their settler presence.

Core Generations

First Generation

The first generation of the Duck family is embodied by Humperdink Duck and his wife, "Grandma" Duck (née ), the 19th-century couple who founded the modern Duck lineage in Duckburg through their farm life and marriage. Humperdink Duck worked as a farmer and husband to , with whom he established the family homestead that became central to the clan's origins. Duck, born in the 1850s and hailing from the family, served as , renowned for her duck farm operations and remarkable longevity extending well into the . Their union and rural existence are explored in Don Rosa's 1994 comic "The Duck Who Never Was," where Humperdink appears in a depiction, highlighting his role as the hardworking patriarch of the Duck farm. In ' stories, such as those in , Elvira is portrayed as a stern yet kind-hearted elder, embodying traditional farm values with her outdated attire, antique vehicle, and woodstove cooking, often dispensing wisdom amid family visits to her isolated homestead.

Second Generation

The second generation of the Duck family encompasses the siblings born to Humperdink Duck and Elvira "Grandma" Duck in the late , marking a shift toward early 20th-century rural American life on the family farm in Duckburg. These figures, primarily developed through ' foundational family tree from the and expanded by , serve as the direct parental links to later generations, with sparse but defining comic portrayals emphasizing their temperamental traits and familial ties. Quackmore Duck, born around the 1870s, was an irritable farmer known for his short temper and strong on the family homestead. He married McDuck, the sister of , some time after meeting her in 1902, and together they raised their children amid the challenges of farm life. Quackmore's character received limited development in , with his most notable appearance in Don Rosa's The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck (particularly Chapter 10, "The Invader of Fort Duckburg"), where he is shown as a hot-headed young duck assisting Scrooge during a family confrontation with rustlers. His irritable nature is highlighted as a hereditary trait passed to his offspring, reflecting the family's enduring feisty dynamic. Daphne Duck, Quackmore's sister, is a less developed figure in the canon, primarily known through family trees as the mother of Gladstone Gander. She married Gustave "Goosetave" Gander, bridging the Duck and Gander families, and inherited a streak of extraordinary luck similar to her son's. Daphne appears sparingly in comics, with her role confined to genealogical references in Barks' and Rosa's trees, underscoring her position as a supportive aunt in the extended Duck lineage without prominent standalone stories. Eider Duck, another sibling of Quackmore, and his wife Lulubelle Loon represent minor but integral branches of the second generation, often depicted as hardworking farmhands. Eider married Lulubelle, a lively loon, and they had children including Abner "Whitewater" Duck and Fethry Duck; these relations were formalized in Don Rosa's comprehensive Duck family tree from the 1990s. Their appearances are limited to background mentions in Rosa's works, such as The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck, where they contribute to the portrayal of the bustling Duck farm household during Scrooge's visits. Lulubelle, in particular, is noted for her spirited personality, adding variety to the family's avian diversity.

Third Generation

The third generation of the Duck family encompasses and his twin sister , the children of Quackmore Duck and Hortense McDuck, forming the central protagonists in many Disney comic stories and serving as the primary link between their parents' era and subsequent family members. (b. circa 1920) is the quintessential everyman hero of the Duck family, often depicted as a temperamental sailor and reluctant adventurer whose mishaps drive the narrative in countless tales. Created by Productions in 1934 for the animated short , Donald's character was fleshed out in comic books by starting in the 1940s, where he exhibits key traits such as hot-headedness, loyalty to family, and an underdog spirit that positions him as the emotional core of Duck family dynamics. Della Duck (b. circa 1920), Donald's twin sister, is an adventurous and resourceful figure who plays a more prominent role in modern media interpretations, particularly as a globe-trotting explorer in the 2017 DuckTales animated series. First introduced in the 1937 comic strip adaptation of the short Donald's Nephews by Ted Osborne and , Della was later integrated into Don Rosa's comprehensive genealogy in The Life and Times of (1993), establishing her as the spirited counterpart to her brother's more chaotic persona. In Don Rosa's genealogy, her husband is an unnamed brother of , depicted as a naturalist explorer who led Junior Woodchucks and later disappeared. Della's husband remains unnamed in most canonical Disney stories, though he is acknowledged as the father of her three sons in both classic comics and the DuckTales reboot. This deliberate ambiguity underscores the focus on Della's independent adventures rather than her marital life. Among other third-generation relatives, Fethry Duck stands out as Donald's eccentric cousin, a beatnik-inspired inventor prone to harebrained schemes inspired by self-help books, often dragging into comedic predicaments; he was created around 1963 by Disney artists Dick Kinney and Al Hubbard for international comic markets. Abner Duck, briefly mentioned in Don Rosa's as the real name of the irritable lumberjack Whitewater Duck, appears in ' 1962 story "Log Jockey" as a tough, no-nonsense relative involved in logging competitions. Dudly D. Duck, another cousin, is a laid-back, failure-prone character featured in Vic Lockman and Mike Arens' 1970 comic "Why All the Crabby Ducks," where he embodies the family's more hapless side. Dimwitty Duck, a dim-witted but well-meaning cousin akin to a duck version of , serves as an occasional sidekick to before becoming Moby Duck's shipmate in 1970s . Moby Duck, a seafaring cousin introduced in #112 (1967) by Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl, is a rugged sailor with his own comic series from 1967 to 1978, occasionally crossing paths with in nautical adventures. Sheriff Dan Duck is Donald's cousin and a lawman in the Western town of Bent Spur Gulch, embodying the adventurous spirit of the era's tales. Portrayed as a tough, no-nonsense sheriff handling rustlers and outlaws, his role appears in mid-20th-century that echo ' Western adventure style, such as stories involving Donald's visits to . His character reinforces the family's ties to heritage, though details remain sparse beyond his duties.

Fourth Generation

The fourth generation of the Duck family consists primarily of the younger members who represent the current generation of youthful adventurers in Disney stories, with no canonical descendants beyond them established in the core narratives. are the identical triplet nephews of , debuting in the Donald Duck Sunday newspaper on October 17, 1937, created by writer Ted Osborne and artist . They first appeared in animation in the short film Donald's Nephews on April 15, 1938, where they are portrayed as polite but quickly turn mischievous under Donald's influence. The triplets are the sons of , Donald's sister, and are frequently depicted as Junior Woodchucks or Boy Scouts engaging in pranks, explorations, and heroic escapades alongside their uncle and great-uncle . In the 2017 DuckTales reboot series, the brothers receive distinct personalities and color-coded attire—red for the responsible, fact-obsessed Huey; blue for the daring, thrill-seeking Dewey; and green for the clever, entrepreneurial Louie—allowing for more individualized storytelling in their adventures. Dugan Duck is a minor character in , introduced as the young nephew of Fethry Duck in the 1982 Brazilian story "O Nascimento Do Biquinho" (The Birth of Little Beak), written by Gérson L. B. Teixeira and illustrated by Irineu Soares Rodrigues. Portrayed as a 4- to 6-year-old rascal with a wild streak, Dugan was separated from his at birth and raised briefly by animals in the jungle before being discovered and adopted into Fethry's chaotic household, where his antics often exacerbate his uncle's misfortunes. He appears sporadically in international , emphasizing themes of family reunion and youthful mischief without significant ties to the main American Duckburg storyline. April, May, and June are the triplet nieces of , serving as the female counterparts to , and debuting in the story "Flip Decision," published in #149 in February 1953. Often shown as intelligent and athletic girls involved in and social activities, they interact with the Duck nephews in comic tales focused on group dynamics and lighthearted rivalries. In the 2017 DuckTales series, characters bearing these names are introduced as Webbigail "Webby" Vanderquack's competitive friends from a junior agent training program, later revealed as artificial duplicates of Webby (herself a genetic construct related to ), providing a loose connection to the broader Duck family through shared and occasional portrayals as distant cousins in expanded media interpretations. These fourth-generation Ducks embody the family's enduring spirit of curiosity and troublemaking, centering contemporary stories on their explorations, family bonds, and growth without established further progeny in official canon.

Extended Relatives

Coot Kin

The Coot kin form a distinct branch of the extended Duck family, intermarrying with the Ducks and establishing deep roots in the rural foundations of Duckburg through pioneering settlement and farming. Depicted primarily in Disney comic stories as resilient, land-bound relatives, the Coots embody the hardy settler spirit that shaped the early community, with family members often involved in , ranching, and local ventures. Cornelius Coot (b. 1790–1880), the progenitor of this line, founded Duckburg in the early as a pioneer outpost, earning enduring recognition through a prominent in the city's square that honors his role in transforming wilderness into a thriving settlement. His efforts as a trailblazer are celebrated in tales highlighting Duckburg's origins, positioning him as a foundational figure in the family's history. Clinton Coot (1840–1910), Cornelius's son and a dedicated farmer, carried forward the family's agrarian legacy on Duckburg's outskirts, marrying and raising their children amid rural pursuits. As the father of (Grandma Duck), whose union with Quackmore Duck solidified the Coot-Duck ties, Clinton exemplified the branch's commitment to land stewardship. His siblings and in-laws, including aunts and uncles like Gertrude, reinforced these farm connections through their own involvement in local farming life. Casey Coot (b. 1865), son of Clinton and Gertrude, pursued while maintaining strong affiliations, marrying Gretchen Grebe and parenting children who extended the family's rural network. Their daughter Fanny Coot upheld these ties through her household and relations, while son Cuthbert Coot emerged as a quirky rancher in Carl Barks's 1945 story "Webfooted Wrangler," portraying him as Donald Duck's eccentric western cousin managing a remote spread. Kildare Coot, another modern descendant appearing in Barks-inspired tales as a peculiar local, adds to the kin's reputation for idiosyncratic, community-rooted characters.

Other Duck Cousins

Whitewater Duck, also known as Abner Duck, is an anthropomorphic duck and a cousin of , depicted as a tough and irritable competing in log-rolling contests. He was created by and first appeared in the 1962 comic story "Log Jockey," published in #267, where he engages in a rivalry with the Black Pierre during a lumberjack competition. Whitewater's sole significant appearance in Barks' work highlights his adventurous spirit in the rugged logging industry, though he has made minor cameos in later stories by other creators. Dudly D. Duck (sometimes spelled ) serves as 's second cousin and an eccentric inventor whose contraptions often backfire spectacularly. Originating in American newspaper strips, he debuted in a 1968 Youthful Donald strip by Bob Gregory (YD 68-02-20) and appeared in the 1970 comic Donald Duck #136 by Vic Lockman and Mike Arens, where his inventions include a "Break Tunnel" and water-repelling paint that cause chaos. In Italian Disney comics, Dudly gains expanded roles as a hapless gadgeteer, with stories emphasizing his role in the extended Duck family. incorporated Dudly into his unofficial Duck family genealogy, positioning him as part of the second generation alongside brothers Duncan, Dwight, , and , thereby adopting him into broader canon narratives. Dimwitty Duck, a dim-witted and good-natured cousin of , embodies a comedic akin to within the duck universe, often stumbling into humorous mishaps due to his lack of . He first appeared in the 1968 Gold Key comic Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #330 in the story "The Vanishing Banister" by Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl, serving as a bumbling ship-hand and farm helper for relatives like Grandma Duck. Featured prominently in 1960s and 1970s humorous shorts and comics, such as the Moby Duck and Dimwitty series (1977–1978), Dimwitty's antics provide lighthearted relief, including aiding in whaling voyages without grasping the dangers involved. His portrayal consistently highlights simpleton traits, making him a foil to more competent family members in farm and sea-based adventures. Moby Duck is an adventurous sea captain and Donald Duck's cousin, characterized as a pipe-smoking whaler who commands a tugboat for merchant voyages and cargo transport, occasionally for Scrooge McDuck. Created by Vic Lockman and Tony Strobl, he debuted in Donald Duck #112 in 1967. In 1960s stories, Moby often rivals Donald through boastful tales of seafaring exploits, as seen in tales like "The Pearl of Wisdom" where their competitive banter drives the plot. Despite his whaling profession, Moby's narratives satirize the trade without depicting actual harm to whales, and he frequently travels with sidekicks like Dimwitty and the porpoise Porpy. His comic run spanned over 70 issues until 1982, establishing him as a symbol of nautical bravado in the Duck family.

Goose Family

The Goose family comprises anthropomorphic geese related to the Duck lineage in Disney comics and , distinguished by their prominent traits of , , and preoccupation with food. These characteristics often place them in comedic, supporting roles within the extended Duck circle, particularly around farm life at Grandma Duck's property. Gus Goose, full name Gustave "Gus" Goose, is the primary figure in the Goose family as Duck's country cousin and the appointed farmhand at Grandma Duck's farm. Debuting in the 1939 animated short Donald's Cousin Gus, directed by Jack King, Gus arrives unannounced at Donald's home with a maternal note asserting he "doesn't eat much," only to rapidly consume all available provisions, including furniture and houseplants, forcing Donald to extreme measures. In ' comic stories, such as those in , Gus embodies slothful inefficiency and insatiable hunger, frequently botching farm chores while fixating on meals, which serves as foil to Donald's more industrious (if temperamental) nature. His obesity underscores the family's thematic focus on culinary excess, appearing in tales where his appetite disrupts family gatherings or holiday preparations. For instance, Gus features in the 2016 animated special Duck the Halls: A Mickey Mouse Christmas Special, blending his gluttonous habits into the episode's migration-themed festivities. Luke Goose, Gus's father and a peripheral member of the family, was devised by as part of his unpublished 1950s Duck family tree sketch, later referenced in official publications like Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #324 (1968). Married to Fanny Coot, Luke appears unnamed but visually distinct in Barks' 1957 comic "Jet Witch" (Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #199), depicted as a bespectacled, respectable attending a community meeting on Duckburg's outskirts. As a minor Barks creation, Luke lacks the overt obesity or food obsession defining his son, instead representing a quieter, background link to the Duck relatives without expanded narrative roles.

Gander Family

The Gander family forms a prominent branch of the extended Duck lineage in , distinguished by their extraordinary good fortune, which starkly contrasts with Donald Duck's perpetual bad luck and serves as a source of ongoing . This branch emphasizes themes of effortless and inherited , often positioning its members as antagonists who highlight Donald's frustrations through their unearned advantages. Goostave Gander, a member of Duckburg's , is the father of and husband to Daphne Duck, who is the sister of Donald's mother, McDuck, making Goostave Donald's by marriage. He was first conceptualized in ' personal Duck family tree from the early 1950s, portraying him as a somewhat snobbish but devoted family man whose contributes to the family's affluent image. Goostave's first on-panel appearance occurred much later, in #600 (1998), where he is depicted as a refined figure supporting his son's lucky lifestyle. Gladstone Gander, the son of Goostave and , is a central figure in the Gander branch, depicted as an extremely lucky and loafer who amasses wealth without effort. Created by , he debuted in the story "Wintertime Wager" in #88 (January 1948), where his innate luck immediately establishes him as Donald's smug cousin and romantic rival for Daisy Duck's affections. As Hortense's nephew, Gladstone frequently antagonizes Donald in Barks' narratives, such as through bets and schemes that exploit his fortune, underscoring the 's arrogance and disdain for hard work; for instance, his luck allows him to win contests and inherit riches, amassing a personal fortune estimated in the millions without employment. This dynamic portrays Gladstone as everything Donald aspires to be but cannot achieve, fueling their rivalry over success, romance, and family inheritance. In the 2017 DuckTales reboot (2017–2021), Gladstone appears as a recurring character, voiced by , maintaining his lucky persona in adventures with and the nephews, such as in the episode "The House of the Lucky Gander!" (season 1, episode 7). Shamrock Gander extends the family's lucky legacy in European , appearing as an Irish-themed nephew to Gladstone who shares the characteristic good fortune. He first appeared in a photo album-style story in Four Color Comics #649 (1955), within , where his luck mirrors his uncle's but often leads to mischievous interactions with Donald's nephews. In continental European publications, maintains this theme, occasionally aiding or complicating adventures while reinforcing the Ganders' contrast to the Ducks' more effortful existence. Overall, the Gander family's interactions with emphasize a rooted in versus perseverance, with Gladstone's effortless triumphs—bolstered by his father's social standing—repeatedly humiliating and exploring Barks' commentary on fortune's role in life. This contrast ties briefly to through shared heritage but highlights the Ganders' unique prosperity.

References

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