As far as this "rich widow" stuff, I think it's worth pointing out that the same strip that mentions this "rich widow" also refers to Scrooge's pops as a "spendthrift", does it not? That might be an explanation as to why the money doesn't seem to be there by The Last of the Clan McDuck.
Rosa's Fergus is depicted as every bit as stingy and a spendthrift as a McDuck would be expected to be. So it's doubtful he would have blown through his rich new wife's fortune that quickly. (When Scrooge refers to someone as a spendthrift, he probably means the person buys a newspaper every day.)
I like your interpretation, Baar Baar Jinx. Not out of character for Uncle Scrooge at all!
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
As far as this "rich widow" stuff, I think it's worth pointing out that the same strip that mentions this "rich widow" also refers to Scrooge's pops as a "spendthrift", does it not? That might be an explanation as to why the money doesn't seem to be there by The Last of the Clan McDuck. After all, I don't think we're to assume that this "rich widow" was anywhere near as rich as modern Scrooge. "Rich" means different things to different people and different contexts, so this widow may have been not rich enough to withstand Fergus's spendthrift ways.
Regardless, I do agree that this rich widow most likely wedded Fergus after Downy's death. It makes sense that a widow and a widower would marry. Also, YD 66-03-18 (a better scan be seen on its Scrooge McDuck Wiki page) has Scrooge say that his father left him 20 million. Not sure what this is 20 million of, but the use of the word "left" indicates that Scrooge received this sum after his father's death. Also, he says it was "to get started on." While Scrooge was already a billionaire at the time of Fergus's death (at least according to The Billionaire of Dismal Downs) an extra 20 million of any currency certainly would've helped his endeavors in the States. Also, being a billionaire is probably just "a start" compared to the massive fortune Scrooge would later compile which is so large it is measured in gibberish terms.
This is clever enough. On the Wiki, we have so far treated the alternative father of Scrooge (or rather fathers, as I decided to link this up to Scotty McDuck in the Barks/Worden tree) as a separate character to Fergus, halfway-running with DuckTales 2017's suggestion that Scotty exists in an alternative timeline of some sort.
Personally, I don't care for the idea of Gideon being born after Downy's death. In addition to the fact that, as mentioned already on this thread, there is at least one story that shows the two McDuck boys growing up together, I feel like there's a certain fun to the idea that Scrooge and Gideon grew up together and their sibling rivalry goes all the way back to their childhood. I like the thought that, as I believe Scrooge MacDuck has suggested before, Scrooge grew up somewhat resenting the fact that a portion of the portion of his earnings he gave to his parents was going to fund Gideon's education. I also like the thought that Gideon was the brother given chickenpox by Scrooge.
If we're going to cite that story, we have to also accept its premise that Elvira is a McDuck sister who grew up in Scotland alongside Scrooge and Gideon. I simply can't wrap my head around that at this stage. Of course, as you say, one could find the idea that Scrooge and Gideon's rivalry began in childhood appealing in itself, and I see the merit in it. But Gideon is not a character that has become "real" enough for me that I'd be willing to attempt to inject him into my mainly Barks/Rosa-based headcanon with explanations like "he was always there, but since he was at boarding school we just never saw him". It just seems too convenient. It reminds me of the arguments that were previously made on this forum that HD&L's parents are alive and well, we just never see them because they're off doing something else when the boys are adventuring with Donald and Scrooge. That might work for a side character, but not for an important relationship like a parent or a sibling in childhood years.
However, is it true that Gideon has been editor of his newspaper "for 40 years?" That would make it essentially impossible for him to have been born around 1900, after Downy's death, to a second wife of Fergus (assuming you believe the stories are set in the 1950s, which is definitely true of Rosa's work). In fact, a 1900 birth year would make him much younger than he appears to be in "modern-day" Duckburg. But I still don't think his being an illegitimate son, stepson or adopted son of Fergus would do justice to what Scarpa apparently intended the character to be.
Angones has said that DuckTales '17 is going to stick to Scrooge's two sisters, siblings-wise, which I initially approved of, but now think is kind of a shame. Since I consider that show an alternate universe (essentially fan-fiction) with no bearing on my comics-based headcanon, it'd have been interesting to see what they would have done with Gideon and Rumpus!
I must confess that I haven't read many Gideon McDuck stories, but is it also possible to spin him as being older than Scrooge, allowing Scrooge to still be the "last" but not getting into any sort of adoptions or adultery hullabaloo?
I don't think that "Last of the Clan McDuck" translates cleanly into "youngest member of the Clan McDuck". Rather, I take it to mean "only (male) member of the current generation of the Clan McDuck, with whom, if he does not procreate, the name will die out". Thus, if there are two surviving brothers (or even male cousins that bear the name) neither would be called "Last of the Clan McDuck" unless one of them dies, since the other could still conceivably have children.
Okay, here it is. This is my Duck Family Tree. If you think anything is off about it, feel free to comment. Please note that the McDuck ancestors will be added in a separate “tree” soon enough. Maybe in like a week. There’s simply too many of them to fit in this one… Anyways, I thought I’d explain my thought process behind this thing. That’s the one thing I wish Gilles Maurice would have included in his tree. The characters that are featured on Rosa’s tree are pretty well-known by now, but I’ll cover pretty much everyone else. (This will take up a lot of text-space, but I'll space it out through a few posts, so that's fine.)
Alright, let’s start at the top left and work our way through this tree. First up: Kildare Coot, from I TL 465-B. Italian stories aren’t part of my head-canon, but my reasoning is that some characters are featured so frequently that they undeniably become a part of the Duck universe. As I understand it, that is the case with Kildare, and thus I’ve added him. Please note that this is more of a guideline than a hard and fast rule.
So, Kildare is, according to the Mickey and Friends Wiki, Donald’s fourth cousin. This would mean that he would be the great-great-grandson of one of Cornelius Coot’s brothers. Johannes Coot from The Incredible Quest for Cooties is exactly that, so I added him too. I’m really on the fence about where I should place Cuthbert Coot. His original Barks story, Webfooted Wrangler, only identifies him as “Donald’s cousin”, which is a very vague term, and thus, it would make sense if he would be placed as Kildare’s father. However, it might be odd that Donald knows such a distant relative… Then again, Kildare is the most distantest one of them all, and he knows Donald. I’m not super-happy about changing Rosa’s core tree more than necessary, but I think I like this placement more than as Fanny's brother.
Hey, maybe that Cornelia Coot would be a nice fit as Cuthbert’s wife, and Kildare’s mother? …I don’t know, she’s not a part of my head-canon. Sorry.
Grandma Duck mentions an Uncle Gus to Donald in YD 44-01-25. Is this Donald’s uncle or Grandma’s? I decided to make him Johannes’ son; Grandma’s first cousin once removed. Mostly, this is just because I want to fill as many empty spots as possible, and not create more new relatives than what is possible. But if Donald can call Ludwig von Drake his uncle, then I think this is okay too.
Speaking of which, Ludwig is stated to be Donald’s “sort of uncle” in ZD 61-09-24. However, the German translation of Duckburg, U.S.A. specifies that he is Grandma Duck’s mother’s sister’s son. She married a “Hofrat von Drake” (Hofrat being a title; not a name).
Now, Walt Disney intended Ludwig to be Donald’s paternal uncle, as seen in the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color episode The Hunting Instinct. However this simply does not work. Donald’s father’s last name is Duck, and Scrooge McDuck was already well established as his maternal uncle. There’s no room for a von Drake. Don Rosa suggested that Matilda McDuck could have married Ludwig, which is an idea I don’t mind, but I prefer the solution I finally went with.
In YD 63-02-07, Ludwig von Drake mentions that his great-great grandfather was the one who invented gunpowder. His dumb nephew is also mentioned.
Okay, the Gooses… or Geese? HDL’s cousin Socrates M Gosling first appears in YD 44-04-05. He fits best as one generation younger than Gus. Gus would be a great fit for Socrates’ father, if it weren’t for the fact that they don’t share a last name. As such, I’ve included aunt Gertie from Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas as Gus’ sister. Her being as genealogically close to Donald as Gus makes sense, since she was invited for Christmas.
Gus’ unnamed grandfather is a background character from Barks’ Jet Witch. He was used as such in Mark Worden’s Duck tree, so I take no responsibility for this one. Gus Goose senior is from the Italian story I TL 683-A, which I don’t consider part of my head-canon, but I thought I’d include him anyway to fill out an empty portrait. This is not the only time I’ll do that.
Gertrude Gadwall’s father is from No Hunting. In the cartoon, he’s only ever identified as Donald’s “old Grandpappy”. Because of his radically different design, I prefer to think of him as a separate character to Humperdink/Dabney/Grandpa Duck. Instead, I made him Donald’s great-great-grandfather. His beak matched Gertrude’s, so I placed him there. His lady friend was seen in the Disneyland episode Your Host, Donald Duck, and one of Grandma’s grandmothers were named Hortensia according to Gilles Maurice’s tree.
Speaking of Gilles’ tree, that’s where the name Pluckahontas comes from. It’s entirely fan-made. But the image is from I TL 2229-1, so at least she exists. Grandma mentions that Poncey de Loon is a distant relative of the Duck family in Barks’ That's No Fable!, but I made him a Coot ancestor anyways.
We’re only about a quarter through this… Okay, the Duck ancestors! Most of this cluster is down at the bottom is from ZD 55-10-09, in which Donald reads up about his genealogy at the library. Pintail Duck is from Barks’ Back to Long Ago!, and D. Duck Esq. is from a drawing Carl Barks did.
That dude with the sword is also from ZD 55-10-09. His uniform seems to be from the American Revolution (1765–1783). Now, both Crockett (The Pioneer Spirit!) and Daniel Duck (The Giant Of Duckburg) are from stories I consider non-canonical, but once again, I put that aside in order to fill empty portraits. Crockett Duck is based on Davy Crockett, who lived 1786–1836. I therefore assume that the dude with the sword survived the war and found a nice lady that he could make a baby with. A baby-Crockett.
The American Civil War-great-grandfather-Duck was originally shown as a portrait in the Daily strip YD 48-04-10. The caption says “Grandpa Duck”, but this can’t be Donald’s grandfather. Humperdink/Dabney was born around 1855 according to Rosa. That would make him at most 10 during the war. That doesn’t work. So this was likely Quackmore’s picture that Donald was given for some reason. The name “Danial” comes from the chest in ZD 43-12-26, which contains a Civil War uniform. I’m gonna assume Danial and Civil War Grandpa are the same character.
Now, the Italian comic I mentioned before, the one with Gus Goose senior, also features a Donald Duck senior who is a Civil War soldier. He has a grandmother, so I added her to the tree too. Donald Sr also finds a girlfriend of sorts in this story, but this story takes place during the war (1861-1865), so Humperdink/Dabney would already have to been born. In other words, she’s can’t be the mother.
Elvira’s husband was named Dabney in the only published stories that are included in my head-canon, but Humperdink on Rosa’s official tree. I value stories more than "behind-the-scenes material", so Dabney it is! His brothers are “the elders of the Duck clan” from the non-canonical The Giant Of Duckburg. They refer to Daniel Duck as “Granddaddy Daniel”, so this seemed like a nice spot for them.
In Suds in Your Eye, Fethry and Donald are said to be “distantly related”, yet “not distantly enough”. I therefore find it unlikely that they are first cousins, as they are in Rosa’s tree. I prefer second cousins. However, we’ve seen Eider Duck’s exact relation to Donald in The Invader Of Fort Duckburg – He’s Grandma’s son. So, while I’m moving Fethry (and Whitewater, but more on that later), Eider stays. Lulubelle Loon is obviously designed as Fethry’s mother first, and as Eider’s wife second, so I moved her along with Fethry. Now, I’ve taken Eider’s kids away… but I’ve given him cousin Lizzy from YD 41-06-18 instead. It’s not made clear whether Lizzie is Donald or HDL’s cousin, but I’ve made my decision.
Moby Duck was very popular back in the day, so I’ll consider him worthy of my head-canon. There’s an Italian series of comics where Fethry goes on adventures with Moby. I don’t think their relationship is specified, I haven’t read them, but I like that Donald goes on adventures with his uncle Scrooge, and Fethry goes on adventures with his uncle Moby. It’s like poetry, so that it rhymes. Where was I? Oh yeah, Moby has been described as both Donald’s uncle and his cousin, so I think this is a perfect placement for him.
In the silly story Mastering the Matterthorn we are told about Upsy Duck. He is said to be both Donald and HDL’s uncle, which I think is stupid. I put him here, as a sort of uncle. Now, he’s not created by any of the bunch I consider head-canon-creating people, but look at him. He’s perfect as Fethry’s father. Dimwitty Duck was Moby’s sidekick back in the days. I think he was called Donald’s cousin at one point or another. He fits great here as Fethry’s brother and Moby’s nephew.
In B 810124, Fethry discovers that his sister left her egg in the jungle. Oops! Now that egg is a half grown boy - Dugan Duck. So who is Fethry’s sister? Well, in YD 38-08-12 Donald brings a mannequin to his cousin Dora. I see no reason to create another new character to be Fethry’s sister when cousin Dora is the perfect candidate. ...The Moby/Upsy-branch is honestly the part of this tree that I’m the most pleased with how it turned out.
I’ve put more time and effort into these texts than some of the essays I wrote in university… What has my life come to?
Okay, let’s finally talk about the Karp/Taliaferro uncles and aunts – the reason this tree exists! Dinkum Duck is Donald’s Australian uncle who sends him an ostrich egg in ZD 46-11-17.
Uncle Herman had Donald take care of his cat. In ZD 54-06-27, Donald goes to return the cat, and we learn that Herman lives out in the woods… Not in a house in the woods – just in the woods somewhere… What…? This unseen character seems to be so weird that I originally had him as Fethry’s father. But I really like Upsy in that position and I also found a more useful spot for Herman. Herman seems to be close enough to Donald that he trusts him with his cat. So his wife’s nephew seems like a more likely spot than his first cousin once removed…
Anyways, Mehitabel Mudhen is infamous for being the only Barks relative that Rosa neglected to feature in his tree (excluding Poncey de Loon). HDL become bill collectors, and when they try to collect Donald’s bill, he says “Er-I-uh-gave the book to cousin Mehitabel Mudhen!” Now, this is obviously a lie. But the fact that this is the first person that Donald thinks of, suggest to me that this Mehitabel is reasonably close to him. So I put her as a first cousin. However, her last name is not Duck, meaning that we would need to give Elvira and Dabney another daughter. Enter Deborah Duck, who sends Donald a knitted sweater in YD 50-01-26. I figured that it’s entirely possible that Elvira and Dabney had another daughter during The Invader of Fort Duckburg that simply had already been married off at the time. So she might as well have married Herman who nowadays lives in the woods. And he might as well be a Mudhen.
Let’s quickly cover the Ganders. Susiebelle Swan is not a Gander, but is Gladstone’s “late distant relative” from The Gilded Man. Someone sent a letter to her in 1856. If we imagine that she was a few years older than Grandma Duck at that time, it would make sense to put her here, and in this generation. Sir Gladstone Gander of Basketville appears in The Hound of Basketville, which I deem non-canonical. However, I want to include Gladstone’s ancestors anyway. Gladstone of Basketville is simply a present day Gladstone-clone. This story is an obvious parody of The Hound of the Baskervilles so it should take place at the same time frame – 1889. If Gladstone of Basketville was born the same year as Grandma Duck, in 1855, then he would be 34 during this story. I can buy that, so I made him present day Gladstone’s grandfather. We also see one of Glastone’s ancestors in the story, Crabstone Gander. 100 years before 1889, in 1789, he was already an old man, probably in his 50s or 60s.
So I put a few more Ganders in between Crabstone and Gladstone. First up is the unnamed Gladstone counterpart to Donald’s great-grandfather from the Italian Civil War-story I have mentioned before. Lochbert and Nicolas Gander are from The Castle Heirs, which I'd say is non-canonical. Lochbert married one of McTavish Duck’s daughters. Fair enough, but nothing about McTavish or the Duck family relations from this story makes any sense… so that’s why McTavish isn’t on the tree. Apparently the Danish translation mentioned that Lochbert’s father was named “Nikolas”, so I made the name more English with a C and put him in here.
The McDucks: Rumpus McFowl grew up thinking he was Scrooge’s cousin. However, in Travails, he learns that he is in fact Scrooge’s half-brother… Scrooge’s sole sibling at this time, apparently… Rumpus has a letter that his mother sent to aunt Vera. His mother was apparently briefly married to Fergus. It would be weird if the mother had any contact with the McDucks after they separated, so I therefore assume that aunt Vera is a sister of Downy O’Drake… And since both Rumpus and Scrooge has always referred to Vera as their aunt, Rumpus’ mother must also be an O’Drake sister. At the time of writing, I can’t think clearly about this, but I believe this is the only way this makes sense… This was discussed in another thread, so feel free to go there and continue the debate. Finally, Scrooge has an aunt Sarah who stored Scrooge’s giant piggy bank since he was a kid. I think she works well enough as Rumpus’ mother.
In YD 66-05-04, it is mentioned that Scrooge has a brother, whom he gave chicken pox to when he was 9 years old. Scrooge's brother Gideon exists, so I put him in. For some reason, I can’t find the source of Downy’s mother Jenny. But I believe she’s from some Italian story from the 70s or 80s. As I understand it, it’s wholly incompatible with L&To$, so it’s non-canon for me. However, Downy has to have had some form of mother, so why not put in Jenny? Downy’s father’s name is from I TL 272-A. I kept his first name ”Mac” and gave him O’Drake. The picture is from The Last of the Clan McDuck. The McDucks have this image hanging on their wall, so I thought this was a reasonable move. It doesn’t correspond to any family member we already know, so why not make it useful? This is one of two times I’ll use an unidentified portrait as an image.
Donald’s uncle Willie Waddle sends him an ostrich named Hortense in YD 38-10-03. What is it with relatives having so many spare ostriches? Two things to note about Willie – 1) His last name is not Duck or McDuck, so he must have married into the uncle-position. 2) According to Donald, he lives in Africa. Okay, so which of Donald’s aunts have been to Africa? Well, Matilda McDuck went there in The Empire-Builder from Calisota. She has a fight with Scrooge and then we never see her until 20-ish years later when she pops up in Duckburg to celebrate Scrooge’s return. And after that, it wouldn’t be until another 25 years later that we finally meet her living alone in Castle McDuck. Here’s my theory: While heading home from Africa, Matilda met this Willie Waddle before leaving. She stayed behind and they married. Once she hears that Scrooge is back in Duckburg, she takes a trip over to see him. Some years later, Willie sends Donald a bird. And then he dies. Matilda has no reason to live in Africa anymore, and instead heads home to Castle McDuck as its new caretaker, since the old one turned out to be an invisible crook.
Whitewater Duck first appeared in Barks’ Log Jokey, where he is referred to as a “distant cousin”. A first cousin isn’t a distant one, so once again I’m going to diverge from Rosa’s tree. Whitewater pops up again in Lars Jensen’s Smarter than the Toughies, this time as Douglas McDuck’s nephew (Douglas being a cousin of Scrooge’s). This makes more sense, as this time, Whitewater truly is a distant cousin. But since his last name is “Duck”, Douglas needs a sister. I TL 366-B features Scrooge’s cousin Sophie, who gives him some cats, if I understand correctly. I’d say non-canon, even though I’ll gladly use the name. There’s also Scrooge’s cousin Theobald from ZD 67-01-15. He owed Scrooge money, but died before paying him back. I put all of these ducks as children of Angus “Pothole” McDuck, since if Jake had kids, Fergus would be aware of them, and then there would be no reason to call Scrooge "the last of the Clan McDuck". I guess that title could refer to only male children, if it’s in relation to passing down the name, so Sophie could have been Jake’s daughter at least… Except then Douglas wouldn’t be Whitewater’s uncle in the true sense, and I want to keep that. Besides, there’s no sign of any Sophie in Rosa’s The Last of the Clan McDuck. Rosa’s The History of the Clan McDuck-sketches mention that neither Jake nor Angus married, so there’s that. I can imagine that Angus isn’t the marrying type, even though he might have fathered some kids here and there, so that works.
Speaking of Rosa’s sketches, Potcrack McDuck, as well as Locksley and his brothers are from there too. However, I needed to put someone in between Potcrack and Titus McDuck. I remembered that there was this Tony Strobl-story, Rainbow Island Rendezvous, where Donald mentions his “old sea dog grandpa” Silas Elias Duck. Scrooge then says that Silas Elias Duck is his relative too. That’s so stupid. Why couldn’t the non-Barks-comics ever keep the family relations straight? So then Silas Elias should at least be a McDuck. “Old grandpa” is vague enough so that I’m okay with making him Scrooge’s great-grandfather instead. The image is of a bust that Scrooge keeps in Christmas on Bear Mountain, which isn’t intended to be Silas Elias, but why not? I mean, “old sea dog”. That fits. Hugh “Seafoam” McDuck is from The Horseradish Story by Barks.
Finally, the last part of the tree: Daisy’s family! The cartoon How to Have an Accident at Work shows what I can only presume to be a near-future Donald, married with what appears to be Daisy. They also have this kid together. Good for them. In Barks’ Flip Decision, we first meet April, May and June when Daisy is visiting her sister; their mother. There is also Daisy's niece Dottie from YD 41-11-13 who lives with another sister of Daisy’s on a farm, according to YD 41-11-21.
Daisy’s parents show up in the cartoon Donald’s Diary. In YD 68-04-02 Daisy speaks on the phone with a lady whom she only refers to as “Grandma”, so I’m going to assume that this is her grandmother, and not Elvira. On the wall there is also a picture of what looks like Daisy’s father… so I put her as Daisy’s paternal grandmother. Her other grandmother was featured in Donald’s Love Letters by Barks.
Daisy mentions a cousin Dustin in YD 45-11-12. Then she goes on a date with an unnamed cousin in YD 47-08-15. Because nothing contradicts it, I'm going to assume that this is the same person as cousin Dustin. Another cousin, Gertrude, is featured in ZD 41-07-06. Daisy has two aunts; Drusilla appeared in The Not-So-Ancient Mariner and Matilda was mentioned in another Barks story, but I can’t find it was for some reason. But trust me – she’s real. Since Drusilla’s beak is similar to Gertrude’s, I put the two of them together, leaving Matilda and Dustin, which I connected since they seemed lonely, or whatever.
Finally, Daisy finds a portrait of her 13th century ancestor in YD 58-04-21.
I’m finally done! I'm sorry that these posts took up so much space. Now I just got to do the same thing for the McDuck ancestors… But there aren’t too many of them, so that’s fine. Give it a few days.
Post by TheMidgetMoose on Sept 6, 2019 15:12:08 GMT
Wow, LP. You clearly put a lot of time and effort into this. Good job! Also, just for clarity's sake, is Deborah's surname explicitly stated to be Duck? As far as I can tell from the INDUCKS scan, this is not the case. Of course, it is simply logical to assume that she is a Duck, I just don't want misinformation to spread that she was explicitly stated to be a Duck even if that is not true.
No matter what I say or do, know that Jesus loves you.
Speaking of Rosa’s sketches, Potcrack McDuck, as well as Locksley and his brothers are from there too. However, I needed to put someone in between Potcrack and Titus McDuck. I remembered that there was this Tony Strobl-story, Rainbow Island Rendezvous, where Donald mentions his “old sea dog grandpa” Silas Elias Duck. Scrooge then says that Silas Elias Duck is his relative too. That’s so stupid. Why couldn’t the non-Barks-comics ever keep the family relations straight? So then Silas Elias should at least be a McDuck. “Old grandpa” is vague enough so that I’m okay with making him Scrooge’s great-grandfather instead. The image is of a bust that Scrooge keeps in Christmas on Bear Mountain, which isn’t intended to be Silas Elias, but why not? I mean, “old sea dog”. That fits.
Funny coincidence, you're not the first person to try to peg down the character in the bust as a direct ancestor of Scrooge McDuck.
Thank you, MidgetMoose! I double-checked the Deborah-strip just now, and if you scroll down, there's a larger scan from WDC 149. Deborah is not explicitly stated to be a Duck, but Donald signs his letter "your nephew Donald Duck". I guess he would be her nephew-in-law if she was simply married to a Duck, but since Donald signs the letter that way, I would say that she's the Duck one.
The idea that those background portraits could be relatives is an old one. I mean, why would you have portraits of people who you don't know? I'd like to point out that the article you linked, Scrooge MacDuck, says that that image is from "a background portrait in an unidentified Carl Barks comic story". Well, it's unidentified no more - it's from Christmas on Bear Mountain. The fact that it is on display in Scrooge's office/living room implies to me that that person is important to him, which is what gave me the idea to make him into an ancestor.
Thank you, MidgetMoose! I double-checked the Deborah-strip just now, and if you scroll down, there's a larger scan from WDC 149. Deborah is not explicitly stated to be a Duck, but Donald signs his letter "your nephew Donald Duck". I guess he would be her nephew-in-law if she was simply married to a Duck, but since Donald signs the letter that way, I would say that she's the Duck one.
The idea that those background portraits could be relatives is an old one. I mean, why would you have portraits of people who you don't know? I'd like to point out that the article you linked, Scrooge MacDuck, says that that image is from "a background portrait in an unidentified Carl Barks comic story". Well, it's unidentified no more - it's from Christmas on Bear Mountain. The fact that it is on display in Scrooge's office/living room implies to me that that person is important to him, which is what gave me the idea to make him into an ancestor.
I don't really think the term "nephew-in-law" is used a lot, at least not in my circles in modern-day U.S.A. At least in the regions I've been to, when someone marries one's uncle/aunt, they usually just become an uncle/aunt themselves and are rarely referred to as an "aunt-in-law" or "uncle-in-law", even though those may be the technical term. Like I think I mentioned last post, it does make the most sense to assume Deborah is a Duck rather than try to fit her on the McDuck side or try to make her some other distant cousin. Still, I don't think the "your nephew Donald Duck" bit provides significant evidence for that. I think it does indicated that she is not some sort of distant cousin, but it doesn't confirm whether she is a biological aunt or a aunt-by-marriage.
Of course, the fact that "Deborah Duck" is a nice alliterative name does point towards this being the author's intent. On the other hand, though, if we marry her off to Uncle Herman or a similar character, the alliteration is lost.
Of course, the fact that "Deborah Duck" is a nice alliterative name does point towards this being the author's intent. On the other hand, though, if we marry her off to Uncle Herman or a similar character, the alliteration is lost.
Well, even if Hortense McDuck married a Duck, we still don't call her "Hortense Duck". And Grandma might be "Grandma Duck", but I would still say "Elvira Coot". Anyways, while I agree that the alliteration is nice, it is by no means important.