Disney Family Trees

[xephyr@cwnet.com]

Concerning the topic of Family Trees in the Disney universes, I think the
only hard and fast rule is that there is no hard and fast rule.  The
various Creators have given their input on what THEY perceive as the Family
Tree as related to a given character (the most common being that belonging
to Donald Duck), but even among the Creators there is disagreement or
contradiction.  There is even a schism between Carl Barks and Don Rosa, and
between Rosa and Egmont, as I recall previous discussions and Mr. Rosa's
own remarks in print (such as his desire to include Ludwig von Drake and
exclude Fethry Duck). Then there are the Family Trees that some accept and
others reject, such as Romano Scarpa's inclusion of Scrooge's "brother"
Gideon, Donald's cousin Kildare (Sgrizzo) Coot and even Dickie (Paperetta
Ye-Ye) Duck.  There's also other Duck relations like Aunt Eider who somehow
brings together the families of Scrooge McDuck & John D. Rockerduck.  Then
there's the vague way Van Horn seems to add Magica DeSpell and Flinthart
Glomgold into the Tree as well.  Personally, I find it comforting to know
that in most cases, at least everyone being included in these Trees are
within the same species groups (Ducks & Geese), but when Barks or Van Horn
throws in Gyro (a "Chicken") I get confused. LOL! :-)  Something just
doesn't seem "right" about that.

As for characters evolving from a one level of relation to another, we've
seen many instances of that.  For instance, the most commonly discussed is
how HD&L went from being Donald's cousin's children to Donald's sister's
children.  There's also the case where, as originally presented, Mickey's
own Nephews were apparently not even his relations at the beginning, but
rather the children of a woman named Mrs. Fieldmouse, but as the story
progressed, they adhered to the title "Nephews" and Mrs. Fieldmouse was
lost to obscurity.  In time we came to understand the boys' last name is
still "Fieldmouse," but this is the name attributed to Mickey's "sister"
(called "Amelia Fieldmouse" in Italy).

Even in a recent book approved by Disney, which I presented here to the
list, the author created a weird relationship between some of the
characters we know [
http://goofy313g.free.fr/calisota_online/trees/lbbdtree.html ] even
including "Mother Goose" into the Family!  Even the great Disney Archivist
Dave Smith doesn't know everything, as he has presented only part of the
story of Minnie's Nieces among some of his so-called "Facts" [ Dave says,
"Minnie Mouse has two nieces, Melody and Millicent, who appeared in a few
comic book stories." The truth is that there appears to be only ONE
instance where they are called Melody & Millicent, but their names changed
to Pammy & Tammy, and possibly others in different stories, and according
to David Gerstein, only Egmont has decided on one set of "official" names;
that being "Millie & Tillie." Meanwhile, the singular Niece, "Melody" has
been used in a large number of comics. Not to forget that, in Italy, Minnie
has two entirely different "older" Nieces named Tiny & Lily].

I guess what I'm saying is that a lot of this stuff is, at best,
speculative, and, at least for now, there is no single Family Tree that
best represents all of what has been written and illustrated about these
beloved characters.  But, I still don't see any harm in speculating and
discussing the various relationships in the meantime.

Thanks,

Rich Bellacera
xephyr at cwnet.com


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