Yeager

The Yeager family of the United States were the most influential family in the history of relations between humanity and the Race. Sam Yeager rose from humble origins and a washed-up baseball career, to become America's foremost expert on the Race during the initial invasion. Sam Yeager and members of his immediate family played crucial roles in numerous historical events, whether for good or ill. Their cousins were the Jägers of Germany, which included Heinrich Jäger, who made a heroic conscientious defection from German service during the invasion.

Individuals who used the Yeager surname

Barbara Larssen Yeager

See Barbara Larssen Yeager.

Bruce Yeager

See Bruce Yeager.

Diane Yeager

Diane Yeager (b. c. 1981) was the wife of Richard Yeager. Her father-in-law Jonathan Yeager, who due to cold sleep had an apparent age close to her own, found her to be very sharp witted and sensible.

Jessica Yeager

Jessica Yeager (b. c. 1998), daughter of Bruce, was a blue-eyed blonde with strong cheekbones, who bore little resemblance to her paternal grandparents Jonathan and Karen. Presumably her looks came from her mother, whom Bruce hadn't stayed married to. Jessica convinced her newly returned spacefaring great-grandfather Sam Yeager that he was welcome with her at any time, flatly contradicting his assertion that he'd be as out of place as a Neanderthal or a woolly mammoth.

Jonathan Yeager

See Jonathan Yeager.

Jonathan Yeager senior

Jonathan Yeager was a Nebraska farmer at the turn of the 20th century, whose father was a German immigrant. Yeager was a philosophical man, and often stated that arguing about religion was pointless because no one could prove a damn thing. This open-minded view of the universe was passed onto his son Sam, who in turned named his own son after the old thinker.

Karen Yeager

See Karen Yeager.

Louise Yeager

Louise Yeager was married to Sam Yeager in the late 1920s and/or early 1930s. Unable to cope with his semi-nomadic lifestyle as a baseball player in the minor leagues, she divorced him some time before World War II.

Richard Yeager

See Richard Yeager.

Sam Yeager

See Sam Yeager.

Related individuals

Donald

See Donald.

Igor Gorbunov

Igor Vadimovich Gorbunov (b. 1920s) was Ludmila Gorbunova's younger brother. After the arrival of the Lizards, Igor managed to have a three-sentence note mailed to Ludmila to confirm he was still alive.

Ludmila Gorbunova

See Ludmila Gorbunova.

Heinrich Jäger

See Heinrich Jäger.

Johann Jäger

Johann Jäger was an engineer for Germany's Henschel company during the Second World War. His letters to his brother Heinrich, a tank commander on the Eastern Front, were necessarily censored, but the brothers had worked out a way of writing in hidden meanings that the censors would not notice.

Jens Larssen

See Jens Larssen.

Olaf Larssen

Olaf Larssen, a Minnesota farmer, was the father of Jens Larssen. Jens fondly remembered Olaf whacking him with birch twigs as part of the sauna ritual. Olaf and his wife (Jens' mother) were still alive at the start of the Race Invasion of Tosev 3, but Jens lost track of them in the resultant chaos.

For the fisherman in "The Njuggle" by Laura Frankos, see Olav Larsen.

Mickey

See Mickey.

Unnamed ginger-addicted mother

One night in an Egyptian guest barracks, Nesseref spent a night next to a female who approached her and asked for ginger. Nesseref chided the other on the socially destructive consequences of ginger use, but the addict responded dismissively. Soon the conversation turned to the topic of hatchlings conceived because of unseasonable sexual behavior, and much to Nesseref's horror, the other female bragged that, when she became gravid as a consequence of this side effect of ginger tasting, she immediately sold her eggs to unknown Tosevite agents in exchange for large quantities of the herb.

Literary comment

While it is not clearly stated, the suggestion seems to be that this female is the biological mother of Mickey and Donald.

Miscellaneous

Jens Larssen's mother is said to have been still alive in May 1942, but is never named.

Ludmila Gorbunova's patronymic is Vadimnovna, suggesting that the father of herself and Igor is named Vadim Gorbunov.

Jonathan Yeager Sr.'s father is stated in Aftershocks to have been a German immigrant, who changed his surname from Jäger to Yeager.

In Upsetting the Balance, Sam names his mother as Paulette. Barbara names her parents as Philip and Carol Baker.

In Homeward Bound, Karen Yeager is said to have had at least one great-grandparent from Ireland.

At the end of Homeward Bound, several children and occasional grandchildren of Richard and Bruce are introduced. All are unnamed, except for Bruce's daughter Jessica.