Biography:

There have been some uncertainties connected to the origin of Gladstone Gander. In Carl Barks' first version of the Duck Family Tree which he made for his own reference in the early fifties, Gladstone was the son of Luke the Goose and Daphne Duck, and was later adopted by Matilda McDuck and Goosetave Gander. (Daphne and Luke died by overeating at a free-lunch picnic). Barks probably came up with this because Gladstone had appeared to be related to both Scrooge and Grandma Duck in his stories. It is said that Barks did away with this adoption in a later version of his tree, that isn't published anywhere.

In Don Rosa's version of the family tree, Daphne instead married Goosetave Gander, and they were Gladstone's parents, so there was never any adoption. Even though it's not shown in his family tree, Don Rosa also think that Matilda McDuck instead is married to Ludwig Von Drake.

Barks has shown that Gladstone has tried only one job in his entire life. Afterwards he was so ashamed that he was hiding his salary (one single coin) in a safe that he probably won some time.

In The Sign Of The Triple Distelfink Don Rosa shows that the extreme luck that is connected to Gladstone (and also to his mother Daphne) is caused by a Triple Distelfink sign that old Humperdink Duck hired a man to paint ahead of one of the barn doors the day Daphne was born. On one of his birthdays when he was still a kid (sometime in the 20's), Gladstone was almost hit by a lightning after Donald had him hang after a rope, ahead of the opposite barn door with an upside down Triple Distelfink sign painted ahead of it. Because of this he always experienced an extremely bad luck on each birthday. However this curse was ended when Gladstone was almost hit by another lightning when hanging after a rope (again caused by Donald) ahead of the barn door with the normal Triple Distelfink painted ahead of it. From then on Gladstone has been followed by extremely luck every single day during the entire year.