Well, I don't like the idea of Gladstone being adopted by Matilda, nor do I like adding too many brothers of Fergus. That being said, that's a theory that works.
I've read the McTavish-story. McTavish was actually part of the Duck family, although the story would make much more sense on every level if he was a McDuck instead... so on my tree I have him as McTavish McDuck (Scrooge's great-great-grand-uncle). With this in mind, I did consider that Pokerface could be a brother of McTavish. That would make Donald and Gladstone equally close to him, genealogically speaking. However, McTavish lived in the 1700s, so you'd think interest in finding heirs would have waned by the time the Pokerface-story takes place.
It's worth noting that the lawyer-man in the Pokerface-story mentions that "Pokerface McDuck distributed his belongings impartially to all members of the Duck Clan! [Donald and Gladstone] are the last of the heirs to be taken care of!" Wait, so Pokerface is part of the Duck-side of the family too? It's like the reverse of McTavish - Everything would make more sense if Pokerface was a Duck instead of McDuck, as that would explain Gladstone's heir-ness.
And why weren't HDL also heirs if they are part of the Duck Clan?
Eh, I wouldn't sweat it too much if I were you. I say he's just a relative of Scrooge. Gladstone is an heir to him through the same unknown quirk of Duckburg inheritance law that makes him a potential heir for Scrooge, and is no more related to him than Scrooge.
And yet, Scrooge himself is not an heir of Pokerface's!
Maybe Pokerface had some stipulation in his will that only someone poor — someone who needed whatever money he could grant them — could inherit his supposed loot? Hence Donald, who… well, obviously; and Gladstone, who doesn't live as a poor man but never bothers to have more than five dollars in his pocket because Lady Luck will provide; are the only two eligible relatives at the present. This would ensure the heirs would be sufficiently motivated to go on the wild goose chase set up by Pokerface.
Alternatively, perhaps Pokerface knew Scrooge and his other McDuck relatives well enough to know they'd sniff out the fishy part of his inheritance immediately, and, since he really wanted his final joke to play right, picked the two relatives of his whom he knew to be appropriately gullible (Donald because, again, obvious, and Gladstone because he'd trust his luck).
EDIT: Well, LP cleared it up above. Scrooge (and everyone else) received their part of the inheritance too. Donald & Gladstone are just the last heirs to be taken care of.
It's worth noting that the lawyer-man in the Pokerface-story mentions that "Pokerface McDuck distributed his belongings impartially to all members of the Duck Clan! [Donald and Gladstone] are the last of the heirs to be taken care of!" Wait, so Pokerface is part of the Duck-side of the family too? It's like the reverse of McTavish - Everything would make more sense if Pokerface was a Duck instead of McDuck, as that would explain Gladstone's heir-ness.
And why weren't HDL also heirs if they are part of the Duck Clan?
The expression "Duck Clan" has been used before (in The Giant of Duckburg, for example) in a context that shows it isn't actually equivalent to "Duck family", but rather refers to the entire combined family of Ducks, McDucks, Coots & Co. Scrooge was explicitly "one of the elders of the Duck Clan" in that story. So it's not hard to believe that Pokerface would divide his possessions amongst "the Duck Clan" and that'd include Donald, Scrooge and Gladstone.
As for HDL, simple: they're minors. Presumably Pokerface only bequeathed money to people who were of age.
Well, I don't like the idea of Gladstone being adopted by Matilda, nor do I like adding too many brothers of Fergus. That being said, that's a theory that works.
I've read the McTavish-story. McTavish was actually part of the Duck family, although the story would make much more sense on every level if he was a McDuck instead... so on my tree I have him as McTavish McDuck (Scrooge's great-great-grand-uncle). With this in mind, I did consider that Pokerface could be a brother of McTavish. That would make Donald and Gladstone equally close to him, genealogically speaking. However, McTavish lived in the 1700s, so you'd think interest in finding heirs would have waned by the time the Pokerface-story takes place.
It's worth noting that the lawyer-man in the Pokerface-story mentions that "Pokerface McDuck distributed his belongings impartially to all members of the Duck Clan! [Donald and Gladstone] are the last of the heirs to be taken care of!" Wait, so Pokerface is part of the Duck-side of the family too? It's like the reverse of McTavish - Everything would make more sense if Pokerface was a Duck instead of McDuck, as that would explain Gladstone's heir-ness.
And why weren't HDL also heirs if they are part of the Duck Clan?
At this point I'm beginning to wonder if we should just completely ignore Pokerface's last name when deciding his place on the family tree. He seems close to the "Duck Clan", and Donald and Gladstone are heirs of his. As you said, it would make much more sense if he were a Duck. Perhaps, unless it is explicitly stated that he is a relative of Scrooge, it would be best to just assume that he is either a close family friend of the Ducks or an uncle by marriage who just so happens to have the last name McDuck. He's probably a distant relative of Scrooge, as I doubt there are more than one McDuck Clan in the Duck Universe, but he had a closer relationship with the Ducks and was maybe even a relative of theirs by marriage.
As for McTavish, unless it's explicitly stated in the story that he was a relative of Donald's paternal grandfather, why not just assume he's a part of a different Duck family than the one Donald's paternal grandpa hails from. I've heard it stipulated before that the name Duck is almost like the duck equivalent of Smith. If that's truly the case, then McTavish might as well just be from a totally different Duck family that Donald is related to via the McDucks.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
The thing is that Pokerface is a McDuck who is related to Gladstone (a Gander, but part of the Duck family), while McTavish is a Duck who is related to Scrooge (a McDuck). Neither of these should be able to happen. In a perfect world, the characters' last names should be reversed to become Pokerface Duck and McTavish McDuck.
A note from the real world - my mother is studying the genealogical tree of my family, and, until some generations ago, and specially before the 20th century, the surnames are a total confusion - surnames who disappear from to the first to the second generation and reappear at the third generation, sons/brothers with one surname and daughters/sisters with other, surnames who change some letters from one generation to the next, public officers who decide to change the surname of some person to distinguish him from the cousin with the same name and surname, etc.
Last Edit: Feb 24, 2019 3:09:25 GMT by crazycatlord
The thing is that Pokerface is a McDuck who is related to Gladstone (a Gander, but part of the Duck family), while McTavish is a Duck who is related to Scrooge (a McDuck). Neither of these should be able to happen. In a perfect world, the characters' last names should be reversed to become Pokerface Duck and McTavish McDuck.
I agree. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. The way I see it, we have three options: 1) Ignore these characters and decide that they are non-canonical; 2) Decide to go against what is in the story and pretend their last names are different; 3) Try to find a way to make it work even with the confusing last names.
Personally, I've decided to roll with Pokerface being from a distant branch of the McDuck Clan. I think I have him pegged down as Scrooge's ninth cousin who was raised in the United States. He married a child of Grandma and Grandpa Duck. He has no close surviving biological relatives upon his death, and he was very close to his wife's family. Thus, when he dies, the members of the Duck family are his heirs and not the McDuck family, as he has no close McDuck relatives. As for McTavish, I've already stated my explanation to that: He's from a Duck family entirely different from the Duck family of Grandpa Duck.
A note from the real world - my mother is studying the genealogical tree of my family, and, until some generations ago, and specially before the 20th century, the surnames are a total confusion - surnames who disappear from to the first to the second generation and reappear at the third generation, sons/brothers with one surname and daughters/sisters with other, surnames who change some letters from one generation to the next, public officers who decide to change the surname of some person to distinguish him from the cousin with the same name and surname, etc.
In reality, even in modern times, before the creation of computerized central registry offices, great confusions were created due to repeated errors of public officers. An example my high school girlfriend has a surname that ended with the letter e, half of her relatives (uncles, cousins, etc. ..) have the same surname that ends with the letter i. In the 80s with the computerization of the registry offices all these errors were discovered and the public officers told the family heads that by now the problem could no longer be resolved, because they no longer knew what the original surname was and even changing the surname into one would have caused many problems .
Cases of the genre were very common before, as also the cases of homonymy, I think that the name of Baldo De'Paperi (Zio Paperone e il nipote ideale) is a reference of Scarpa to this type of situations.
I'm reading through some old Taliaferro stuff, and suddenly a relative by the name of Willie Waddle sends Donald an ostrich! Donald says: "Well, well, well - A present from uncle Willie Waddle in Africa!"
Now, who is this uncle Willie, and how do we fit him into the family tree? Since his last name is Waddle, he'd have to be an uncle by marriage. So my first thought was to ditch my Aunt-Deborah-married-a-Mudhen-and-is-Mehitabel's-mother theory and instead have Deborah be married to Willie. This would make Mehitabel Mudhen's place on the tree uncertain which is not super desirable to me. But then I remembered that Donald has other aunts, such as Matilda McDuck. Maybe she met mr. Waddle in Africa after Scrooge burned down the village in 1909? Alright, so why isn't mr. Waddle in the final scene in 1930? Well, maybe he's off-screen or home sick. Or stayed back in Africa. I don't know. Thoughts on this?
By the way, on Gilles Maurice's tree, Deborah Duck is married to a "Webfoot McWaddle". Is that an alternate name of Willie Waddle or just a completely different character?
I'm reading through some old Taliaferro stuff, and suddenly a relative by the name of Willie Waddle sends Donald an ostrich! Donald says: "Well, well, well - A present from uncle Willie Waddle in Africa!"
Now, who is this uncle Willie, and how do we fit him into the family tree? Since his last name is Waddle, he'd have to be an uncle by marriage. So my first thought was to ditch my Aunt-Deborah-married-a-Mudhen-and-is-Mehitabel's-mother theory and instead have Deborah be married to Willie. This would make Mehitabel Mudhen's place on the tree uncertain which is not super desirable to me. But then I remembered that Donald has other aunts, such as Matilda McDuck. Maybe she met mr. Waddle in Africa after Scrooge burned down the village in 1909? Alright, so why isn't mr. Waddle in the final scene in 1930? Well, maybe he's off-screen or home sick. Or stayed back in Africa. I don't know. Thoughts on this?
By the way, on Gilles Maurice's tree, Deborah Duck is married to a "Webfoot McWaddle". Is that an alternate name of Willie Waddle or just a completely different character?
Webfoot McWaddle is cited in the story W WDC 115-02 where Donald inherited his old house in the street next to donald's house.
I'm reading through some old Taliaferro stuff, and suddenly a relative by the name of Willie Waddle sends Donald an ostrich! Donald says: "Well, well, well - A present from uncle Willie Waddle in Africa!"
Now, who is this uncle Willie, and how do we fit him into the family tree? Since his last name is Waddle, he'd have to be an uncle by marriage. So my first thought was to ditch my Aunt-Deborah-married-a-Mudhen-and-is-Mehitabel's-mother theory and instead have Deborah be married to Willie. This would make Mehitabel Mudhen's place on the tree uncertain which is not super desirable to me. But then I remembered that Donald has other aunts, such as Matilda McDuck. Maybe she met mr. Waddle in Africa after Scrooge burned down the village in 1909? Alright, so why isn't mr. Waddle in the final scene in 1930? Well, maybe he's off-screen or home sick. Or stayed back in Africa. I don't know. Thoughts on this?
By the way, on Gilles Maurice's tree, Deborah Duck is married to a "Webfoot McWaddle". Is that an alternate name of Willie Waddle or just a completely different character?
I get what you're saying with wanting to make Willie the husband of Matilda, but I think Deborah would be a better fit for his wife. First of all, Willie being married to Matilda makes the timeline a bit complicated. My impression from "The Empire Builder from Calisota" was that Hortense and Matilda immediately left Africa to go back to America after Scrooge's evil deed, which wouldn't really give her enough time to meet and marry someone. It's still possible. Maybe she met him and fell in love. Maybe he followed her back to the States, eventually married her, and then moved back to Africa. Then we still have the problem of what's going on with him during the 1930 scenes, though. Also, based on Don Rosa's timeline, Matilda was back in Scotland sometime after "The Old Castle's Secret". Why wasn't she in Africa? Why doesn't Willie live in Africa, too? I think this theory just brings more questions than answers.
On the other hand, if Deborah is married to Willie, that would explain why we don't ever see her in person. Her living away in Africa is a perfect explanation. It fits, and, unlike the Matilda-Willie theory, gives us answers instead of questions. As for Mehitabel, you could just create another daughter of Elvira's to be her parent, or you could just place her somewhere more distant on the family tree.
Webfoot McWaddle is cited in the story W WDC 115-02 where Donald inherited his old house in the street next to donald's house.
Ah, thank you Xanderares. So that means that Gilles completely missed Willie in his tree.
I get what your saying with wanting to make Willie the husband of Matilda, but I think Deborah would be a better fit for his wife. First of all, Willie being married to Matilda makes the timeline a bit complicated. My impression from "The Empire Builder from Calisota" was that Hortense and Matilda immediately left Africa to go back to America after Scrooge's evil deed, which wouldn't really give her enough time to meet and marry someone. It's still possible. Maybe she met him and fell in love. Maybe he followed her back to the States, eventually married her, and then moved back to Africa. Then we still have the problem of what's going on with him during the 1930 scenes, though. Also, based on Don Rosa's timeline, Matilda was back in Scotland sometime after "The Old Castle's Secret". Why wasn't she in Africa? Why doesn't Willie live in Africa, too? I think this theory just brings more questions than answers.
On the other hand, if Deborah is married to Willie, that would explain why we don't ever see her in person. Her living away in Africa is a perfect explanation. It fits, and, unlike the Matilda-Willie theory, gives us answers instead of questions. As for Mehitabel, you could just create another daughter of Elvira's to be her parent, or you could just place her somewhere more distant on the family tree.
Well, let's say Matilda and Willie had one of those love-at-first-sight things that sometimes happen in fiction. Matilda stays in Africa in 1909, while Hortense goes back to Duckburg. Flash forward to 1930. Scrooge returns to America. Matilda goes to greet him, but Willie stays back in Africa. And why wouldn't he? Willie hasn't met Scrooge before, so he probably doesn't care. Sometime after sending Donald the ostrich, Willie dies. This means that Matilda has no reason to stay in Africa and moves into McDuck Castle.
Now, I think that makes sense, but I'll admit that your version is easier to swallow. But I still don't like Mehitabel being a distant relative, since she was the first one Donald thought of in the relevant story. And I don't want to create characters if it's not super necessary.
I get what your saying with wanting to make Willie the husband of Matilda, but I think Deborah would be a better fit for his wife. First of all, Willie being married to Matilda makes the timeline a bit complicated. My impression from "The Empire Builder from Calisota" was that Hortense and Matilda immediately left Africa to go back to America after Scrooge's evil deed, which wouldn't really give her enough time to meet and marry someone. It's still possible. Maybe she met him and fell in love. Maybe he followed her back to the States, eventually married her, and then moved back to Africa. Then we still have the problem of what's going on with him during the 1930 scenes, though. Also, based on Don Rosa's timeline, Matilda was back in Scotland sometime after "The Old Castle's Secret". Why wasn't she in Africa? Why doesn't Willie live in Africa, too? I think this theory just brings more questions than answers.
On the other hand, if Deborah is married to Willie, that would explain why we don't ever see her in person. Her living away in Africa is a perfect explanation. It fits, and, unlike the Matilda-Willie theory, gives us answers instead of questions. As for Mehitabel, you could just create another daughter of Elvira's to be her parent, or you could just place her somewhere more distant on the family tree.
Well, let's say Matilda and Willie had one of those love-at-first-sight things that sometimes happen in fiction. Matilda stays in Africa in 1909, while Hortense goes back to Duckburg. Flash forward to 1930. Scrooge returns to America. Matilda goes to greet him, but Willie stays back in Africa. And why wouldn't he? Willie hasn't met Scrooge before, so he probably doesn't care. Sometime after sending Donald the ostrich, Willie dies. This means that Matilda has no reason to stay in Africa and moves into McDuck Castle.
Now, I think that makes sense, but I'll admit that your version is easier to swallow. But I still don't like Mehitabel being a distant relative, since she was the first one Donald thought of in the relevant story. And I don't want to create characters if it's not super necessary.
Yes, what you've suggested is possible, I just don't find it very likely. Still, it's possible. I'd be interested to see what anyone else thinks about it.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
Post by Baar Baar Jinx on Oct 21, 2019 16:37:28 GMT
Why does this page state that Upsy Duck is the son of Elvira and Humperdink? It cites no evidence for it. If it's fan speculation, it should be identified as such.
Why does this page state that Upsy Duck is the son of Elvira and Humperdink? It cites no evidence for it. If it's fan speculation, it should be identified as such.
Donald himself says that Upsy is/was his uncle and HDL's great-uncle