The Complete Once Upon A Time Family Tree Explained

Hard as it may be to believe, it's been nearly 15 years as of writing since the first episode of "Once Upon a Time" aired on ABC in the fall of 2011. The series was a stroke of genius from "Lost" alums Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, who harnessed the endlessly engrossing mystery box elements of the former program for a story that not only smashed together all the classic fairy tales viewers grew up with, but twisted them in surprising ways.

As is now expected of a show of this kind — especially one that runs without a clear endpoint in sight — constant reveals of secret identities, children, and parentages created a ludicrously confusing family tree that was further warped by retcons, alternate realities, and re-written timelines. Fortunately, it didn't take a cursed dagger or magical pen for us to make sense of it all, as we set out to untangle and explain the complete "Once Upon a Time" family tree.

The easiest way to understand the "Once Upon a Time" family tree is to start with one of its outermost branches — young Henry Mills, the once orphaned child who plays an instrumental role in saving his fairy tale family from the various curses placed on them (or, in some cases, by them). Henry was born in the Land Without Magic to two human parents who were (unbeknownst to one another) refugees of Fairy Tale Land. Having separated before the pregnancy was discovered, Henry's biological mother gave birth to him alone and made the difficult decision to give him up for adoption. He is ultimately adopted by the mayor of the small, peculiar town of Storybrooke, Maine.

Despite what she feels are her best efforts, Henry's relationship with his adoptive mother is cold and unsatisfying, and he develops a closer friendship with his elementary school teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard (Ginnifer Goodwin) — with whom he shares an even deeper bond than either of them immediately realizes. For the time being, however, she simply gives him a large storybook to help him process his feelings. Upon flipping through its pages, Henry becomes convinced that the characters and stories are all real, and thus becomes determined to bring his estranged birth mother with him to Storybrooke so that she can lift the curse placed on the town by his adoptive mother.

About a decade (and, like, five separate reality-altering curses) later, Henry triumphantly leaves Storybrooke behind to explore the New Fairy Tale Land, and soon falls in love with a woman he recognized as Cinderella (Dania Ramirez). They have a daughter named Lucy, who coincidentally has to embark on a quest similar to Henry's from when he was boy, though this time it is an adult Henry (now played by Andrew J. West) who must remember the magic to save his family.

Henry's biological mother is Emma Swan (played by "Star Trek" and "House" alum Jennifer Morrison), a human citizen of Fairy Tale Land who was sent to the Land Without Magic as an infant. She had already been familiar with the ups and downs of the foster care system when she put Henry up for adoption, having been through it herself. During this time, she befriends a fellow orphan named Lily Page (Agnes Bruckner), who is secretly a fellow outcast from Fairy Tale Land. In fact, her dark fate had been caused indirectly by Emma herself, whose parents had cursed Lily with dark energy in order to prevent their own child from potentially becoming evil.

Emma continued to struggle in the system, briefly coming into the care of a woman named Ingrid (secretly the evil Snow Queen, yet another secret Fairy Tale transplant, played by Elizabeth Mitchell), before running away to fend for herself. She made a living as a petty thief for some time, during which she met and conceived a child with, you guessed it, another secret storybook character. The man actually ends up getting her sent to prison (which we'll explain a bit further down), where she discovers that she's pregnant with his child, Henry. Once she's released from prison, she starts a life as a bounty hunter that lasts until Henry returns to her to bring her to Storybrooke. Before Morrison left "Once Upon a Time" in season 7, her character developed a relationship with Captain Killian "Hook" Jones (Colin O'Donoghue), with whom she has a second child named Hope. This would make Hope Henry's biological half-sister.

Though Ms. Blanchard didn't fully understand it at the time, there was probably a reason she felt so protective of Henry when he was in her class; in addition to being one of her loneliest students, he also just so happened to be her biological grandson. In Fairy Tale Land, Mary Margaret Blanchard is Snow White, a former thief whose life was changed by a chance encounter with the "Charming" Prince David (Josh Dallas). (Fun fact: Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin got married in real life after meeting on the set of "Once Upon a Time," and even left the show together after season 6 to focus on their family. Recently, Dallas wrapped up the supernatural mystery-box series "Manifest," while Goodwin prepared for Disney's "Zootopia 2.")

The two fell for each other quickly and eventually got married, despite having a number of existential threats hurled at them on their way to the altar. One of these was the prophecy that their unborn child — who would eventually grow up to be the morally complex, but ultimately heroic Emma Swan — could become a being of great darkness (this turned out to be true for a time, as Emma briefly took on the mantle and powers of the Dark One). Thus, Mary and David made the decision to infect Lily Page with dark energy as a baby, based in part on their animosity toward her mother Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten). Their most powerful adversary in Fairy Tale Land was Regina, the Evil Queen (Lana Parilla), who curses the couple's kingdom to be banished to the Land Without Magic, where they will be robbed of their memories, relationships, and happy endings. 

As a last resort, Mary and David save an infant Emma from the curse by sending her to the real world via a magic wardrobe. Sometime after Emma and Henry help the citizens of Storybrooke overcome the first curse, Mary and David have a second child (the biological brother and uncle of Emma and Henry, respectively) whom they name Prince Neal.

Though Snow White first presents as a peasant bandit whisked to royalty by her Prince Charming, she was actually born of royal blood all along. Mary's father was King Leopold (Richard Schiff, widely known for playing one of the best characters on "The West Wing"), a prince from a distant kingdom who came to the north as part of an arranged marriage agreement between him and the family of Princess Eva (Eva Bourne).

En route to his romantic destiny, however, Leopold is sidetracked by another princess named Cora (Barbara Hershey), who just so happens to be the adoptive grandmother of Henry Mills, though we'll explain that in more depth further down. For the time being, it is only relevant to note that Leopold coldly left Cora once he discovered that she had already given birth to a child, arguably setting in motion generations of cruelty that would lead to untold destruction, heartbreak, and death.

When he returns to his original plan of marrying Eva (soon after resulting in the birth of Snow White, making Leopold and Eva Henry's great-grandparents), it doesn't take long for Cora to poison her out of jealousy and a desire to attain the throne for her own daughter, Regina. This twist plan begins with Regina ingratiating herself to the family and earning the attention of a lonely Leopold, who marries her. Their relationship is largely loveless and predictably results in Regina orchestrating his death (having seduced the Genie — also the Magic Mirror and Sidney Glass, played by Giancarlo Esposito — who assassinates Leopold to please Regina).

Ironically, between Snow White and Prince Charming, it was actually David who technically came from peasant stock. He was originally born to Ruth (Gabrielle Rose) and Robert (David Cubitt), two humble farmers who could barely afford to keep themselves fed, let alone David — or his twin brother, James (also played by Josh Dallas).

In their desperation, Ruth and Robert are preyed upon by the scheming Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle), who (in addition to taking perverse delight in the psychological torment of others) is searching for a child to offer the equally desperate King George (Alan Dale). With the king unable to sire an heir of his own, he needs Rumplestiltskin's help to procure one for him — thus, the magical middleman asks Ruth and Robert to offer one of their twins, lest they allow one of them to die of hunger during the harsh winter on the horizon. Letting fate decide with a coin-toss, they give Rumplestiltskin James, leaving David to be raised by his biological parents on the farm. Robert is so overcome by grief at his perceived failings that he develops an addictive disorder and gets himself killed by Captain Hook (who, strangely, eventually becomes his future grandson-in-law) while trying to bring a runaway adult Prince James back home to the farm with him.

Years later, while attempting to forge a partnership with the wealthy King Midas (Alex Zahara), James is slain in battle. Distraught, King George once again seeks out the help of Rumplestiltskin, who in turn convinces David to assume the identity of his dead brother. He agrees in order to provide a comfortable life for his mother Ruth, though doing so tragically means his relationship with her must end.

With Emma Swan's side of the family tree exhaustively explored, we'll hop back out to a further, parallel branch to trace the roots of Henry's biological father, Neal Cassidy. Neal was the very scoundrel whom Emma fell in love with during her time as a criminal in the Land Without Magic, who heartbreakingly turned her in to the police almost immediately after conceiving Henry with her — but the story is more complicated than it first appears.

Unlike Emma, Neal had grown up in Fairy Tale Land, known there as Baelfire. He was born to two darkly complex people, who separated during his childhood and left him to grow up in a world of pirates and skullduggery from a very young age. He even encounters an adult Captain Hook, with whom he would one day compete for the affections of Emma Swan. Eventually, Baelfire is sent through a portal to the Land Without Magic, where he is briefly taken in by the wealthy Darling family before their children, including Wendy (Freya Tingley) begin to be tormented by Peter Pan's (Robbie Kay) Shadow. He sets out to stop Peter by traveling to Neverland, but is largely unsuccessful.

Baelfire ultimately flees back to the Land Without Magic, where he resigns himself to life as a normal human named Neal (which kind of makes it strange that Mary and David chose this fake name to honor his memory, but whatever, the show ended over seven years ago). When he finally connects with Emma, he learns of her magical destiny to save the lost citizens of Fairy Tale Land. Thus, he decides to disappear from her life and have her arrested, so that her true journey can begin.

One of the aforementioned, uh... complicated parents of Neal Cassidy is none other than Rumplestiltskin himself, who wasn't always the rotten, magically manipulative sociopath we know him as for the majority of "Once Upon a Time." Rumple himself had his own difficult parents we'll address very soon — suffice it to say, neither of them were in his life for very long, and the lessons they imparted on him were far from conducive to a healthy upbringing.

In fact, the only "good" thing that came out of his father's particularly distant parenthood was that Rumple was left under the care of old wool weavers, who taught him the skills of the trade that eventually allow him to provide for himself and his young bride, Milah (Rachel Shelley). During the ogre war (in which he is drafted to fight), a magical fortune teller foresees that Rumplestiltskin will die without ever meeting his son, Baelfire, should he remain in combat. He heeds this warning and deliberately injures his leg so that he can be sent home, only for Milah to lose all respect and affection for him due to his decision. This set him on the path toward becoming the vengeful Dark One, which saw him slay Milah (who had absconded with Hook) and abandon Baelfire in the Land Without Magic. For those keeping track at home — Rumple is Henry's paternal grandfather.

Rumplestiltskin develops an obsession with Belle (Emilie de Ravin) and (after a lot of character development) the two fall in genuine, healthy love with one another. They also have a child named Gideon, who would technically be the half-brother of Baelfire and the half-uncle of Henry.

For someone as evil as Rumplestiltskin, it really shouldn't have been all that surprising that his parents were just as dark — in fact, what was actually most surprising was that they arguably eclipsed his unmatched wickedness themselves. Rumple's father, Malcolm, was sold into child slavery as a young boy, and presumably toiled as a blacksmith for the majority of his childhood. When he escapes this servitude, he falls deeply in love with a woman named Fiona (Jaime Murray), and the two sire a son.

Soon after his birth, however, two fairies reveal to the couple that the boy will one day be killed sacrificing himself to save the world from darkness. Driven mad by this horrific vision of the future, Fiona steals the magical powers of one of the fairies and becomes the villainous Black Fairy — unwittingly the very darkness which her son will one day die fighting. Realizing this, she vanishes from her child's life entirely, with Malcolm believing that the boy had somehow caused Fiona's death. He thus names him Rumplestiltskin as a punishment.

Malcolm barely cares for Rumple during his childhood, instead becoming consumed with the idea of escaping to a world he once saw as a child — Neverland. In order to revert to the childlike state necessary to live in this world forever, Malcolm abandons Rumplestiltskin (poetically making a decision similar to that made by Rumple himself when he sent Baelfire to the Land Without Magic) and remains in Neverland as its ruler, Peter Pan. As they discover when the family is reunited after the first curse, decades later, Pan is Henry's paternal great-grandfather.

The timeline of "Once Upon a Time" is wildly confusing. After a certain point, you kinda just have to throw your hands up, accept the vague "alternate timeline" logic offered by the series, and not think too hard about stuff like how Captain Hook almost definitely had relationships with both Neal's mom and the mother of Neal's child. (We know, we know, time moves differently and sometimes gets rewritten etc., get over it, the show left TV before Disney+ was even announced, BUT STILL...)

Anyways, this is all to say that, in the rewritten timeline that exists in the post-season 6 time jump, Cinderella's origins were largely altered so that she could be an appropriate partner for Henry. In this version of events, her mother, Cecelia (Cindy Luna), who would have been Henry's mother-in-law, left Fairy Tale Land for Wonderland (oof, remember when Sebastian Stan dipped out on the ill-fated "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland" spin-off to play Captain America's bestie for 15 years?). Cecelia's husband Marcus (who is not Cinderella's biological father) briefly tries to rekindle things with his estranged first wife, Rapunzel (Alexandra Metz), in Cecelia's sudden absence. By the time Henry and Cinderella first meet, Rapunzel has already had Marcus assassinated and assumed his estate, thereby taking on a secondary fairy tale role as Cinderella's wicked step-mother — and, by extension, Henry's wicked step-mother-in-law.

There's no better way to end this list than by finally circling back to one of the most important members of Henry's family — the Evil Queen herself, Regina Mills. She is the very same (and secretly self-appointed) Mayor of Storybrooke who adopted Henry before the events of season 1, naming him after her late father from Fairy Tale Land, Prince Henry (who was played by Tony Perez). Her mother, Cora, had caught the prince's attention with a little help from Rumplestiltskin, forming a bond between him and her family (Regina in particular) that would last the rest of his lifetime.

Unable to hold onto power or to prevent the ascension of her bitterest rival Snow White, Regina casts the curse that sends all those in Snow White's kingdom to the Land Without Magic, where they are fated to live dull and meaningless lives until Emma Swan is able to save them. The act compels her to such unforgivable acts as killing her own father, whose heart she needs as part of the curse ritual.

As the series progresses, however, her true love for Henry allows Regina to finally grow beyond her selfishness until she becomes genuinely worthy of being the ruler she always wished she could be. Her character arc is a highlight of the series at large, and is one of the reasons why "Once Upon a Time" is one of the best fantasy TV series ever made.