There are a lot of questions about the Outlander family tree and how everyone is connected. One of those is whether Roger is Geillis’s son or not.
Time travel can make a lot of things difficult to understand. One of those is how everyone is connected. And in the world of Outlander, it’s clear that there are a lot of familial connections that we may not have even uncovered fully yet.
One of the questions that is asked a lot is about whether Roger is Geillis’s son or not. The two are certainly related, but how exactly is that the case?
Geillis is not Roger’s mom on Outlander
Don’t worry; Roger and Brianna are not doing anything icky when it comes to their relationship. While they are related, it’s very distantly so their relationship isn’t incestuous.
Roger is not Geillis’s son in the world of Outlander. That goes for the books and the show.
Roger’s mom was the niece of Reverend Wakefield. She died in London during the Blitz when the ceiling of a tube station collapsed on her. Roger was lucky to survive and it was his time-traveling dad who managed to save his life. That’s for another article, though.
How are Geillis and Roger related?
Geillis and Roger are related, but it’s not a close connection. Roger does run into Geillis’s son with Dougal MacKenzie, though.
Geillis and Dougal’s son was adopted by a family in Cranesmuir, and he grow up to be William Buccleigh MacKenzie, also known as Buck. This is the same Buck who married Morag Gunn, and the two met Roger on the ship to the Colonies in the 1760s when Roger time-traveled to follow Brianna.
Buck later runs into Roger at Alamance and is the one who ends up getting Roger hanged by Tryon’s men. There is a bigger storyline that happens in the books, but it’s not important to understand the relationship.
Buck and Morag have a son called Jeremiah. That name is passed down a lot with Roger’s own father being a Jeremiah and Roger then uses the name for his own son, baby Jemmy.
So, Roger is a great-great-(insert a number of times)-grandson of Geillis Duncan and Dougal MacKenzie.