In a recent documentary airing on Spanish TV titled “Columbus DNA: The True Origin,” forensic expert Miguel Lorente and his team are asserting that Christopher Columbus could not have been from Genoa, Italy as commonly believed, but rather, more likely hails from Valencia, Spain.
However, the methodology used to arrive at this conclusion is flawed to say the least, so I’d like to take a moment and unpack it a bit further:
Over the last 20+ years, Lorente and his team at the University of Granada have been testing the remains of Christopher Columbus to determine what insights could be gleaned. An analysis of both his and Ferdinand Columbus’ bones was able to confirm a father-son relationship between the two individuals. Regarding Ferdinand’s DNA specifically, in both the Y chromosome (male) and in his mitochondrial DNA (transmitted by the mother), they found “traits compatible with Jewish origin.”
Because there was only an estimated ten to fifteen thousand Jews living in the Italian peninsula during Columbus’ time vs. two hundred thousand in the Iberian Peninsula (what is now Spain), and due to the fact that Columbus did not share genetic traits with other people with the surname “Colombo” whose DNA was tested in the study between Genoa and Milan, the investigative team concluded that Columbus was most likely from Spain rather than Italy.
However, the data did not show a genetic connection between any of the Colombos tested, not just Columbus himself. But why?
Well, this is because Colombo was a surname often given to children who were abandoned in the 15th century, which explains the high degree of variance between the data samples. As a result, is it a fair assumption to conclude that Columbus was not from Genoa because they were not able to find a genetic match while testing an unknown sample size of Colombos in Northern Italy? Not particularly.
To assert that Columbus was from Spain beyond a shadow of a doubt simply because of a small pool of genetic testing and based on sheer population numbers of Jews in different areas of the Mediterranean is more than misguided, as it also ignores the evidence that supports the idea that Columbus was from Genoa, including (but not limited to):
- 15th century historians who knew Columbus personally referring to him as “a man of Genoa”
- Columbus’ own words in a 1498 letter where he states that “I was born in Genoa [and] I came to serve you [the king and queen] here in Castile.”
- Columbus and his family are mentioned by name in Genoan contracts, documents, deeds of sale, and more.
While we cannot 100% discount the research being conducted, additional empirical data will be required to draw any definitive conclusions as the current evidence is more reflective of a “process of elimination” approach to Columbus’ origins than anything else. This much can be taken from the other possibilities that Lorente presents, such as being from the Balearic islands or Sicily.
This sentiment was echoed by Antonio Alonso, a geneticist and the former director of Spain’s National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences. “Unfortunately, from a scientific point of view, we can’t really evaluate what was in the documentary because they offered no data from the analysis whatsoever,” said Alonso. “My conclusion is that the documentary never shows Columbus’s DNA and, as scientists, we don’t know what analysis was undertaken.”
It is also worth noting that Lorente is on the record saying that Columbus was Genoese just three years ago in the following quote from 2021: “There is no doubt on our part [about his Italian origin], but we can provide objective data that can close a series of existing theories.”
With all of these factors in mind, it is easy to see how one might question the authenticity of these claims. Having said that, the investigation is still ongoing, so Italian Americans, historians, and the scientific community at large will need to wait until the fully published findings are released before we can truly evaluate the merits of these results.
Resources:
- Cristóbal Colon fue judío y de esta zona de España. Mira el documental ‘Colón ADN, su verdadero origen’ [TVE]
- La mayor mentira que nos creímos: Por qué Cristóbal Colón nunca pudo ser de Génova [TVE]
- DNA study confirms Christopher Columbus’s remains are entombed in Seville [The Guardian]
- Christopher Columbus may have been Spanish and Jewish, documentary says [The Guardian]
- Historia de los Reyes Católicos by Andrés Bernáldez, Tomo I, Cap. CXVIII, p. 269.
- History of the Indies by Las Casas, Book One, Ch. 3, p. 15.
- Relaciones y Cartas de Cristóbal Colón, p. 248
Would like to Edit my comment, about Christopher Columbus, as there is some duplication’s. Thx