Duck Family Tree, more widely known as Carl Barks's first Duck Family Tree, is a version of the duck family tree created by Carl Barks.
Description[]
A rather limited effort, this version of the Duck Family Tree spans four generations and includes the following characters:
- Old “Scotty” McDuck
- Elvira Duck (as "Grandma Duck")
- Matilda McDuck (in her debut)
- Goosetave Gander (in his debut)
- Scrooge McDuck
- Hortense McDuck (in her debut)
- Quackmore Duck (in his debut)
- Daphne Duck (in her debut)
- Luke Goose (as "Luke the Goose" & in his debut)
- Gladstone Gander (as "Gladstone Grander, born Gladstone Goose")
- Della Duck (as "Thelma Duck")
- Donald Duck
- Gus Goose
- Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck
According to the tree, Gladstone Gander was born the son of Luke the Goose and Daphne Duck, then later orphaned, and adopted by the spouses Goosetave Gander and Matilda McDuck. This information does not line up with known lore, though a marriage between Goosetave and Matilda is not strictly impossible.
Similarly, the information that Gladstone's parents died at a free-lunch picnic, if translated onto plain old Goosetave and Daphne (Gladstone's parents in mainstream continuity), may still be the case, and, indeed, the unlicensed comic The White Balloon depicts that events.
Another element of the genealogy not followed by later sources is the idea that Gus Goose was a nephew of Luke Goose's; later sources instead depict Luke as Gus's father outright, having "freed" him of the obligation of being Gladstone’s birth father.
Behind the scenes[]
This version of the Duck Family Tree was created by Carl Barks for his personal use in the 1950's, and later printed in the Carl Barks Library’s 6th volume, and, later, in the Don Rosa Library’s 5th. In the former, it was accompanied by Mark Worden's Duck Family Tree, an illustrated expansion of this tree.
Shortly after this official release of his first Duck Family Tree, Barks created Carl Barks's second Duck Family Tree, more in line with later versions of Duck genealogy (as well as with what Barks himself had written on the subject in his story Race to the South Seas) but including fewer characters.