THE ANCESTORS

Barks never made a full lineage of the McDuck clan, but he would sometimes reveal some information, especially in his stories. He once attempted to make a short biography. Here is a loose excerpt incorporating some of Scrooge's ancestors (with are few story references attached):
Scrooge McDuck was born in Scotland of penniless parents whose lineage can be traced back forty centuries to a Middle-Eastern potentate called King Scroogeshah of Fatcatistan. The McDuck blood perhaps traveled to Scotland with the Vikings, who are known to have raided the shores of Asia-Minor during the early centuries B.C.
In Scotland, the McDucks became a great clan whose herds of sheep grazed far and wide in the highlands (mentioned in U$29 Hound of the Whiskervilles: ...The clansmen's cottages and sheepfolds once dotted these moors...).
Some of the men folk went to sea as owners of merchant vessels (Ship's Captain Seafoam McDuck in FC0495 'The Case of Horseradish'), and even as raiders of the Spanish Main (British naval officer Matey McDuck in U$16 Back to Long Ago!).

Here is a full listing of all the references to Scrooge's ancestors Barks made in his stories (the years are in some cases unknown):
946: Eider McDuck is killed by the Saxons (FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret).
1057: Quackley McDuck buries himself behind the castle walls (FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret).
1205: Roast McDuck dies from overeating (FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret).
1220: Swamphole McDuck has the dungeon door sealed (FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret).
????: Stuft McDuck dies (FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret).
15??: The McDuck clan becomes owners of a whole fief (U$29 Hound of the Whiskervilles).
15??: The McDucks and the Whiskervilles are in a clan war (U$29 Hound of the Whiskervilles)
1560: The McDuck clan leaves Scotland (U$29 Hound of the Whiskervilles).
1755: The McDuck family acquires a valuable pocket watch (U$10 The Heirloom Watch).
1860: Scrooge's grandfather is a miner (U$29 Hound of the Whiskervilles).

THE EARLY YEARS

Barks' fictional McDuck biography continues: The McDucks had fallen on lean days by the mid 1800's. Scrooge's parents were poor laborers in Glasgow. Scrooge had to go to work while very young, and earned his first dime as a shoeshine boy (mentioned in U$44 Invisible Intruder). This first dime he has kept ever since. As the old 'Number One Dime' it has come to mean very much to Uncle Scrooge...

The reference listing continues with Scrooge:
1870: Scrooge receives an American silver dime for polishing a ditchdigger's shoes (U$44 Invisible Intruder).
187?: Scrooge starts his fortune collecting firewood in the hills of Scotland (U$22 The Golden River).

THE FOLLOWING YEARS

Barks is not clear as to when Scrooge actually left Scotland, but a plausible guess would be 1880. Barks' fictional biography reveals little about the big step: He left Scotland while still very young and came to America to work on a Mississippi river steamboat owned by his uncle Pothole McDuck (mentioned in U$11 'The Great Steamboat Race'). In 1885 Scrooge makes a brief visit to Scotland and pays one dollar for his first pair of glasses (U$21 The Money Well). From now on we have these few Scrooge stories to turn to:

FC0189 The Old Castle's Secret For the first time Scrooge visits his ancestral home - accompanied by his nephews - in his huge, old castle in Dismal Down. The overall purpose is to look for the family treasure that has been gone for 900 years, but the nephews scurry around on the premises (the rooms, the towers, the cellars, behind the walls, the cemetery) and learn a great deal of Scrooge's ancestors and of the secrets of the gloomy castle.

U$29 Hound of the Whiskervilles Scrooge wishes to be part of Duckburg's high society and to that end he remembers that his ancestors wore a prestigious clan tartan. With his nephews Scrooge travel to his ancestral location in the moors (a day's trip by car from Glasgow) to look for the pattern. They visit Castle McDuck, which is now in ruins(!!!), and manage to find the last surviving piece of tartan cloth. Now it can be used as a model for prestigious paintings...

U$44 The Invisible Intruder The story was written by the professional writer, Vic Lockman (see more HERE), who worked for Barks' employer, Western Publishing. The story in 'historical' terms is not especially interesting, but it contains 3 flashback panels in which Scrooge reminisces events from his youth in Scotland. One of them is how he got his beloved Number One Dime, a theme that Barks later embraced in several stories and interviews.

There was a fourth story in which the Ducks starred without Scrooge, WDCS237 Mystery of the Loch. In it, the Ducks travel to Scottish Loch Less in order to take a photograph of its alleged sea monster Lessie. The story contains a few - for this page - relevant scenes, one of them being a visit to a local grocer who speaks with a Scottish accent.