Christopher Columbus' DNA

Amusing story in The New York Times. As I have said, scientific genealogy can answer specific and narrow questions; though in this case I think there's going to be enough wiggle room for the myth-makers to contine publishing books (note: I don't know which ones are the mythical ones!).

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To make things even tougher, he has found that Catalonian Coloms and Genoese Colombos are so closely related it is hard to distinguish them with the standard Y-chromosome tests.

What I had intended to say was that sailors, who are highly mobile by definition, are less "national" than anyone. But the article almost made my point for me.

If Columbus was from a sailing family, his genes could have come from anywhere, and he lived his life as a sailor and probably left his genes all over the place. I've said somewhat the same here WRT nomads.

I saw a documentary on the Catalan claim some time ago - on National Geographic channel IIRC - and it seemed highly convincing, especially that he could speak and write Catalan and kept diaries in this language, and never wrote much Italian, though he could speak it.

It claimed that he was a noble, who with his uncle, was probably involved in sporadic piracy. When a pirate raid on a Genoese ship went wrong and the pirates were captured, he successfully passed himself off as being a Genoese passenger, to avoid prosecution, and thereafter kept that "fake" identity.

Also, as someone who had taken Y-DNA and mtDNA tests, himself, I can understand the excitement of revealing an ancient ancestor, even if that ancestor is only one of a multitude.

On my Dad's side, I am Y-DNA R1b1c7, and so possibly a descendant of Niall of the Nine Hostages.

On my Mom's side, I am mtDNA T1, and so related to some of the Tarim Basin mummies, and also genealogically a descendant of Rollo the Dane - who founded the Kingdom of Normandy.

During certain periods Catalan was the business language of Mediterranean sailing. Other times, a creole version of French was (lingua Franca). Italian seldom was, partly because each Italian area spoke its own dialect and there was no Italian nation.

I've done a fair amount of casual genealogy research, but at a certain point I realized that even my great-grandparents were unimaginably different than me and not people I could possibly communicate with much (not even the English-speaking ones),

By John Emerson (not verified) on 08 Oct 2007 #permalink

Italian seldom was, partly because each Italian area spoke its own dialect and there was no Italian nation.

yeah, i was thinking that. italian is really just florentine dialect, right?

I've done a fair amount of casual genealogy research, but at a certain point I realized that even my great-grandparents were unimaginably different than me and not people I could possibly communicate with much (not even the English-speaking ones)

Imagine what people will be like, three generations after you.

By Caledonian (not verified) on 08 Oct 2007 #permalink

Columbus could not have been from Catalonia using the arguments that we know.

1- His original name was covered up therefore Colon/Colom is not his true name.

2- He was married in Portugal 1479 and the marriage had to be authorized by the king of Portugal I hvae proven this.

3- Portuguese and Catalan languages are similar in many ways. Any argument for a Catalan mother toungue works the same for Portuguese.

4- C.C. lived, was married, had children only in Portugal and moved from Portugal to Spain always referred to as a "foreigner" in Spain.
5- He could never hide himself from the Kings who knew him and who helped to cover up his true identity, therefore Colom and Colon are names used to hide his true identity.

6- His true name is yet a secret that possibly DNA caN REVEAL
___________________________
Manuel DaSilva Rosa - Columbus Historian
Pico, Azores, Protugal
http://www.UnmaskingColumbus.com/