Breaking Down the Fraser Family Tree on <i>Outlander</i> and <i>Blood of My Blood</i>

Outlander, a.k.a the sexiest show ever made about time travel and war, is about to return for its penultimate season on Starz. Over the past seven seasons, the series has hopped back and forth between multiple centuries and continents to follow the love story between Claire, a resilient nurse from 1940s England (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan), a rugged 18th century Scotsman.

Based on what we know and have seen so far, season 7 will take its cues directly from the seventh novel in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone. That means we’ll see Jamie and Claire continue to fight for the increasingly precarious new life they've built in North Carolina, under the looming shadow of the Revolutionary War, while their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger settle into 1980s life at the Scottish estate of Lallybroch, Jamie's ancestral home. The second half of season 7 continues down different timelines, which now includes a third branch as Roger, while searching for his kidnapped son Jemmy, finds himself in 1739, crossing paths with a blast from the past—or future, depending on how you look at it.

Given the breadth and complexity of the Outlander timeline–and, let’s face it, all the sex–it’s no surprise that the Fraser-Randall-MacKenzie family tree has become pretty complicated. So as you mentally and emotionally prepare for the new season, here’s a primer on how, exactly, all of these people are related.

The Jacobite Simon Fraser–formally known as 11th Lord Lovat, and informally known as “The Old Fox”–is one of the characters in Outlander who is based on a real historical figure. Despite being Jamie’s grandfather, he’s a pretty terrible and disloyal person all round, and is revealed to be playing both sides during the Jacobite rebellion, which ultimately gets him beheaded.

Jamie’s grandmother doesn’t appear in the show, but her name has been confirmed by Gabaldon—it’s an homage to the Outlander audiobook narrator of the same name.

Although Jamie’s parents are both dead in the Outlander timeline, their love story will be the focus of an upcoming prequel series, Blood of my Blood. Brian (Andrew Whipp) and Ellen met and eloped in the early 18th century, and their romance endured despite Brian’s father’s best efforts to break them up. However, thanks to a time travel hiccup, we get to meet Brian before the prequel. Brian doesn’t know it, but the man knocking on his Lallybroch door is none other than the husband of his granddaughter, Brianna. Roger is shocked when he comes face-to-face with his grandfather-in-law, who offers assistance. Roger avoids encountering his father-in-law as a teenager as Jamie is at university in France.

Another potential obstacle to the Brian-Ellen union was Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix), Brian’s second cousin and romantic rival. Though Murtagh was heartbroken when Ellen chose Brian over her, he remained completely devoted both to her and to her son, Jamie. He became godfather to Jamie, and fought by his side in multiple battles, before being killed at the Battle of Alamance.

We’ll see the details of Ellen and Brian’s courtship play out in the upcoming prequel series, but while the couple had many happy years together, their love story has a tragic ending. Ellen died giving birth to the couple’s fourth child, Robert Fraser, who was stillborn.

Ellen’s eldest brother Colum (Gary Lewis) lives with a condition called pycnodysostosis, also known as Toulouse-Lautrec Syndrome, which affects the mobility of his legs. Despite his painful and debilitating condition, he’s made the chieftain of Clan MacKenzie—much to the chagrin of his hotheaded younger brother, Dougal, who was vying for the position himself. Colum eventually grows weary of living in pain, and enlists Claire to help him to die in peace.

Headstrong and hard to pin down, Dougal (Graham McTavish) had a complex relationship with most of the show’s characters—but none more so than his nephew, Jamie. Before his death, Colum designated Jamie to be the guardian of his son Hamish, instead of Dougal, which exacerbated the resentment that already existed. Finally, when Dougal tries to kill Claire and Jamie for treason, Jamie kills him right back in a memorably emotional and bloody scene.

Although Hamish (Roderick Gilkison) was raised as Colum and Letitia’s son, his biological father is actually Dougal. To say that this family is complicated is an understatement.

Because Colum’s condition made him unable to have children, his wife Letitia (Aislín McGuckin) became pregnant by his brother, Dougal. It’s not entirely clear if she did this willingly, but it seems to have been a strategic move rather than an affair, in order to ensure that Colum would have an heir.

The eldest of Brian and Ellen’s children, William only lived until the age of 11, when he died from smallpox.

Ellen and Brian’s second eldest child. After her mother’s death, Jenny (Laura Donnelly) took over running the household at Lallybroch, and continues to hold down the fort while her younger brother Jamie is away on his endless adventures.

A man so legendary he barely needs an introduction. James Fraser grew up at his family’s Scottish estate, Lallybroch, and like Jenny, his childhood was marred by losses: first his beloved brother William, and then his mother, both of whom died before Jamie was ten. He grew up to be a formidable warrior, serving as a mercenary in France and a soldier in Scotland, before his life was changed forever by meeting Claire.

Having grown up together, Jenny and Ian (Steven Cree) married at a pretty dramatic time in both of their lives; her brother Jamie had just been imprisoned for the first time, and shortly after that, her father Brian died. Ian, a longtime friend of Jamie’s, had just returned from the war after losing part of his leg.

Jenny and Ian’s youngest child (John Bell) is a key character in Outlander. Born during a fraught time, when Redcoats were regularly coming back to harass the Frasers at Lallybroch, Ian took after his uncle and grew up to be a relentless thrill-seeker, following Jamie and Claire on many of their escapades. Ian became a Mohawk and fell in love with Wahionhaweh (whom Ian calls Emily). The pair married, but Emily (Morgan Holmstrom) had several miscarriages and then a stillborn daughter, and Ian was asked to leave to improve Emily’s chances of having children. In the first half of season 7, Ian finds out that the remarried Emily had a son who bears a striking resemblance to Ian. Now, Ian is following his father’s dying wish to make his feelings known to a Quaker called Rachel (Izzy Meikle-Small) when he returns to America.

One of the many things Jamie and Claire have in common is their traumatic childhoods. Claire lost her parents in a car accident when she was young, after which she was raised by her uncle.

It was through that uncle that she met Frank Randall, a historian, who she went on to marry. When World War II began, Claire became a combat nurse while Frank served as an MI6 officer, meaning the the couple spent much of their time apart. After the war, they take a trip to the Scottish highlands to reconnect—but instead, Claire ends up inadvertently whisked back into the 18th century. There, she meets a certain dashing Scotch warrior, and the rest is history (if you will).

Claire’s uncle Quentin (Prentis Hancock), an archeologist, stepped in to raise her after her parents died in a car accident. His work took him all over the world, and Claire got to go with him, which prepared her well for her future exploits as a transatlantic time traveler.

Frank (Tobias Menzies) never gave up searching for Claire after she vanished on their trip, but when she miraculously returns, things are...not the same. She is, of course, in love with another man—and pregnant with his child. Despite discovering this, Frank loves Brianna as his own daughter, but his marriage to Claire never recovers. In the end, he dies an unceremonious death in an icy car accident, leaving Claire free to try and find her way back to Jamie.

Conceived in the 18th century but born in 1940s Boston, Brianna (Sophie Skelton) is understandably conflicted about where she belongs. After mourning the loss of the man she thought was her father, she eventually travels back into the past with Claire and tries to build a life there with her husband, Roger. Brianna and Roger have two children, Jeremiah and Amanda. When Claire detects Mandy has a life-threatening heart defect, the couple decides they must return to the 20th century. When Brianna and Roger discover Lallybroch is for sale, they decide to renovate the now-dilapidated ancestral Fraser home. Bree applies for an inspector job at the local dam, which after some sexist-based resistance, she successfully gets. Unfortunately, one of her co-workers, Rob Cameron (Chris Fulton) is about to tear Bree’s family apart.

History professor Roger (Richard Rankin) first becomes involved with Claire and Brianna when they come to him seeking answers about a group of Scotsmen who fought in the 1945 Jacobite rising—and one in particular by the name of Jamie Fraser. During the course of that “research project,” he and Brianna begin to fall in love, and in season 5 the couple get married. Roger became a minister to those on Fraser’s Ridge but has not pursued this path after returning to Scotland in the late ’70s. Instead, he has been writing down a brief history of time travel in the guise of a novel. Now, he returns to the past with his many-times grandfather Buck to save his kidnapped son. Unfortunately, they travel too far back, and Roger is now coming face-to-face with other members of his family tree in 1739. How will this mess with the myriad branches?

Bree and Roger’s first child Jeremiah was born shortly before their wedding. At the time of his birth it wasn’t clear who his father was, because of Brianna’s rape at the hands of Stephen Bonnet, but a distinctive birthmark later proves that Roger is indeed Jeremiah’s dad. Growing up on Fraser’s Ridge gives Jemmy time to bond with his grandfather Jamie so he still has vivid memories of the past when they return to modern-day Scotland. Jemmy has knowledge of where Jamie hid the stolen Jacobite gold, making him a target for Bree’s co-worker. Rob kidnaps Jemmy and now Roger has to save his son.

The season 7 trailer shows Brianna giving birth to her and Roger’s second child, Amanda. Due to her health, the MacKenzie’s return to the 20th century. The procedure works and the family seems settled until Rob Cameron kidnaps her older brother Jemmy. It is Mandy who alerts her parents that Jemmy is no longer in the same timeline because Mandy can no longer feel a connection to her brother. Mandy and Bree stay in 1980 while Roger returns through the stones at Craigh na Dun.

After being infatuated with Jamie since she was a teenager, Laoghaire (Nell Hudson) ends up finally getting the chance to marry him after he’s released from prison. At the time, Claire is back in the future, trapped in her own loveless marriage, but Jamie is (of course) still in love with her, and the marriage quickly breaks down. Laoghaire never overcomes her jealousy of Claire, and ultimately conspires to have her put on trial for witchcraft. When Jamie returns to Scotland in the Season 7b premiere, he visits Laoghaire to deal with unfinished business. Jamie agrees to amend their agreement so Laoghaire can remarry and keep the roof over her head.

Marsali (Lauren Lyle) and Joan (Layla Burns) are Jamie’s step-daughters from his marriage to Laoghaire. Though the marriage ended poorly, Jamie’s paternal relationship with the girls is very real, to the point where Marsali even calls him “daddy.”

Although they’re not related by blood, young orphan Fergus (César Domboy) is effectively adopted by Jamie and Claire after they meet in France during season two. Fraser never knew his own parents, and is scraping by as a pickpocket in Paris—but after Jamie catches him in the act, they develop a bond so deep that they become chosen family. Fergus later goes on to marry Marsali, Jamie’s stepdaughter.

Geneva (Hannah James) was yet another woman who was hopelessly infatuated with Jamie, but she took thing a step further than Laoghaire and actually blackmailed him into a one night stand–days before her own wedding, no less. She becomes pregnant with a son, William, and dies giving birth to him.

William (Oliver Finnegan/Charles Vandervaart) grew up as an orphan, never knowing that his real father was Jamie. He was raised by Lord John Grey, a close friend of Jamie’s and husband to Geneva’s sister Isobel. William is now fighting in the American Revolutionary War for the British, which puts him on the opposite side of the conflict to his biological father. At the moment, William doesn’t know that Jamie is his dad, but others have already clocked the familial resemblance.

Family and time travel make for complicated bedfellows, which Roger knows better than most. Jealousy caused William Buccleigh “Buck” MacKenzie to target Roger in season 5. For the crime of hugging Buck’s wife, Buck turned Roger into the Red Coats as a rebel, and Roger ended up with a noose around his neck. Graham McTavish cameoed as Buck because Tavish’s fan-favorite character, Dougal MacKenzie, is Buck’s father. Confused? Thankfully, Diarmaid Murtagh has been cast as the accidental time-traveler Buck, who has come from the 18th century to 1980. Cousin Buck followed the humming sound through the stones and made his way to Lallybroch. Roger caught the prowler and realized his identity. Buck accompanies Roger as they look for Jemmy’s whereabouts, but Buck is experiencing ill health. When the duo go to a herbalist, Roger is startled by who opens the door.

It is hard to make friends in another century, but Claire quickly bonded with Geillis (Lotte Verbeek) through their knowledge of herbs in 1743. The pair both get accused of witchcraft, and Geillis confesses to save Claire. However, Geillis is not the BFF Claire thinks she is. Later, Claire learns Geillis survived execution because she was pregnant with Dougal’s child (who we know to be Buck), and Dougal helped her escape. In 1968, Roger and Bree meet Geillis, whose real name is Gillian Edgars, and Gillian tries to kill Bree because Gillian thinks she must make a blood sacrifice to time travel. Bree survives, but Gillian’s husband does not. Now, Roger comes face to face with Geillis once more in 1739.