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> I invented this theory from the facts that,
> first of all, Grandma Duck is the sister of Uncle Scrooge.

> But, Grandma Duck is *not* the sister of Scrooge McDuck. A look at the
Duck
> Family Tree by Don Rosa will confirm this, *and* that Grandma Duck is
> Donald's grandmother.

In (mostly of Dutch origin) comics in the Netherlands, Scrooge is a brother
of Grandma Duck. When translating Life of Scrooge in Dutch, the
editors/translator gave Dumbella Duck the name 'Doortje', an alternative
form of the Dutch name of Grandma Duck, 'Dora', since they thought Dumbella
Duck and Grandma Duck were the same person! In later episodes, it turns out
this was wrong, but then the name was already made up. Despite that, in a
recent Dutch weekly, Grandma Duck stills calls Scrooge with 'broerlief' (=
'dear brother').

> Secondly, in her
> second comic on which she was first seen in flesh and blood. * Donald says
> that grandmother comes, when he tells the nephews that grandmother is
> coming, he probably means that his grandmother is his mother.
> * This sentence may have been confused by you, but I meant: YD 43-09-27.

As far as I know, in the first daily with Grandma Duck (of 27 September
1943), Donald never says inside the comic that a grandmother is coming: the
nephews must have heard of this before the start of the comic.

> Also in
> another comic of Al Taliaferro she says son to Donald. In Donald's Grandma
> Duck the cousins also say when they come: "Grandma".

In English, it is common to say 'son' to a younger person to reflect age
difference. The nephews (not cousins) might say 'grandma' for the sake of
simplicity: it is easier to say grandma than great-grandmother (Rosa made a
joke about this in W.H.A.D.A.L.O.T.T.A.J.A.R.G.O.N.).

> Who agrees that the theory is correct that Grandma Duck is the mother of
> Donald and not the grandmother.

To answer your question: not me, based your current theory.

Pim Heeman

The boys did indeed start about it. I thought it was so and did not check
it out. You can indeed use a son for a younger person, but you can also use
Grandma for an older person and she does not have to be Donald's
grandmother. In 1947 Grandma Duck joined Barks once. So she could not have
been declared dead in 1948. Then you would not have been the mother of
Scrooge and therefore a McDuck. Then it would be strange that Scrooge had
such a close relationship with someone who is the mother of his sister's
husband, according to Rosa. By the way, how did you know that I am from the
Netherlands?

Pim:

> The Dutch name of Dumbella Duck in Life
> of Scrooge is even 'Doortje', an alternative form of the Dutch name of
> Grandma Duck, 'Dora', since the editors thought that Dumbella was the sister
> of Scrooge! Despite that, in a weekly of this year, Grandma still calls
> Scrooge 'dear brother'.

You don't mean Dumbella (Donald's sister), but Hortense (Scrooge's sister).

The Dutch editors have always stated that Grandma Duck is Scrooge's sister.
This was also confirmed by the story "From egg to duck" (or "Donald's life in an eggshell", or whatever), an Italian story drawn by
Marco Rota which appeared in a special publication in the netherlands.
After a brief confusion when Rosa's stories appeared, they now again stick to this brother-sister relation.

On a different note, it's interesting to see that the new DuckTales now uses Dumbella as name for Donald's sister.
Back in the 1990s, when Rosa used the character, he named her Della (her newspaper strip name), because he found the name Dumbella
(her name in the cartoon) too silly.
For non-native English speakers, the silliness ("Dumb bell") may be less obvious. In the Dutch translations, she has always been
Dumbella.

--Harry.

> > The Dutch name of Dumbella Duck in Life of Scrooge is even
> > 'Doortje', an alternative form of the Dutch name of Grandma Duck,
> > 'Dora', since the editors thought that Dumbella was the sister of
> > Scrooge! Despite that, in a weekly of this year, Grandma still calls
> > Scrooge 'dear brother'.
>
> You don't mean Dumbella (Donald's sister), but Hortense (Scrooge's
sister).

Yes, I mean Hortense. Dumbelle, Dora en Doortje has a nice alliteration
though.

> The Dutch editors have always stated that Grandma Duck is Scrooge's
sister.

In my first mail, I see that I expressed myself indeed not very clear. I
tried to say "since they thought Dumbella Duck and Grandma Duck were the
same person!" instead (copied from my second mail).

Pim Heeman

Here are also messages that I made:
http://featherysociety.proboards.com/thread/691/grandma-duck-mother-grandmother-donald