What Happened to Grandma Duck's Parents?

[drakeborough]

Nov 6, 2019 21:43:39 GMT TheMidgetMoose said:

Do you happen to remember when Rosa said he saw Clinton as having died in 1910?

Here is the original sketch of his duck family tree, which includes birth and death dates:



In the case of Clinton, the dates are 1840-1910. Some dates are also given in this DCML message from 11 January 1994:

Now, I see my own message and I reminded myself to try to list the birth/death dates from my notes. I see that I did not mess around with the fringes of the tree yet -- therefore, I never made any notes concerning Fanny or Gus; there wasn't much going on in that branch, so the dates didn't matter much as long as I knew which generation they each belonged in. Of these other characters, the dates are sometimes partially given in "The Old Castle's Secret" as regarding the McDuck ancestors. Other dates are exact when there was a need to be, otherwise I didn't get fancy and I just used 5 year increments, 1920, 1925, 1930 and so on. (I wouldn't say 1921 if there was no specific reason to since I knew I might still change a date here or there someday for some reason. If a date ends in a blank, that means I figure the character lived well past 1967. If a date ends in a "19??", that means I don't know when the critter died, but they must surely be as cold as a carp by 1970!

DONALD DUCK 1920-
HUEY, DEWEY & LOUIE 1940-
$CROOGE McDUCK 1867-1967
HORTENSE McDUCK 1876-19??
MATILDA McDUCK 1871-19??
DELLA DUCK 1920- (?)
QUACKMORE DUCK 1875-19??
ELVIRA "GRANDMA" DUCK 1855-19??
CASEY COOT 1860-19??
CLINTON COOT 1830-1910
CORNELIUS COOT 1790-1880 
PINTAIL DUCK 1530-1564
FERGUS McDUCK 1830-1902
DOWNY McDUCK 1830-1897 (yes, I made a goof on her tombstone).
POTHOLE McDUCK 1829-19??
JAKE McDUCK 1832-19??
SEAFOAM McDUCK 1710-1776 (died in the war?)
MALCOLM McDUCK 1530-1564
SWAMPHOLE " 1190-1260
ROAST " 1159-1205
STUFT " 1110-1175
QUACKLY " 1010-1057
EIDER " 880-946

DAISY DUCK 1920-

That's all that's in my notes.

Some dates are different, but at any rate the legend says that if they end with 0 or 5 they are just approximations, and may be changed. Some of them were changed indeed.

[That Duckfan]

I got linked to this thread from the family tree thread, and it seems I never posted my answer.

I agree with fredj that Rosa's dates should be taken as placeholders, as sources he used in plotting out his work but not as actual fact. I also take the view that Clinton had died, and bequeathed the hill to Casey. This must have happened before December 1899.

We also have a rough founding date for the Junior Woodchucks: Summer 1898. Photographs shown in W.H.A.D.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N. show that the first two Woodchucks weren't much younger than they were in 1902. What's more, the big Jamboree seen in the story seems to be some kind of anniversary of sorts, and it is implied to take place not long after The Recluse of McDuck Manor. 1948 is fifty years after 1898. Finally, Theodore Roosevelt recalls that the Woodchuck militia fought in the Spanish-American War (which was in 1898). I expect Clinton disbanded the old militia at the close of the war, to form the Junior Woodchucks soon after.

This suggests Clinton died circa 1898-1899. I'm edging towards the latter date, given Casey's general attitude to his deed. I suspect Clinton died fairly recently, as late as November 1899.

On Gertrude I'm not so sure, but given her lack of appearances around this time, I suspect she passed away earlier. This may be anywhere from shortly after Grandma's birth to the late 1890s, as I don't think she ever appeared in Rosa's work apart from the family tree.