Spanish Saliva May Reveal Real Columbus

Spanish Saliva May Reveal Real Columbus
By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Jan. 25, 2006— Hundreds of saliva samples may reveal the disputed origins of Christopher Columbus, according to a genetic investigation aimed at finding possible distant descendants of the admirals family.

A team of geneticists, led by José Antonio Lorente Acosta from the University of Granada, has begun to collect samples from Spanish men sharing the surname Colón (Columbus) in the effort to find a common ancestor who may be the link with the man credited for discovering the New World in 1492.

Columbus is widely thought to have been born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, the son of wool trader Domenico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa.

Other theories, however, argue that the explorer was born in Spain, his real name being Cristóbal Colón.

Various versions of the story have Columbus as a pirate born in Catalonia, a Catalan Jew who fled to Genoa to hide from the Spanish Inquisition, and the illegitimate son, born in Majorca, of Spains prince of Viana.

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