tgoop.com/Bibliotheca/3969
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This thread will look at the evidence presented by the network found here in a summary on it's own website:
The study confirmed this Jewish origin with the YDNA and mtDNA of his son, Hernando. First of all, mtDNA is inherited maternally, so it is not relevant to Chris. Secondly, how has YDNA confirmed he is Jewish? Did they do a specific clade analysis? It is not specified.
At the moment it seems based on the fact that he had J YDNA, the doco concluded that Columbus was Jewish. This makes the assertion quite ridiculous, as such a wide clade is found over much of Europe, including along the Ligurian coast, not just Jews.
Furthermore, even if a specifically Jewish clade was found, it could simply indicate distant paternal ancestry. It is not evidence that the man was Jewish himself. So the genetic justification for Colombus' Sephardic origins is not very strong.
The rest of the evidence presented is based on this flawed genetic evidence. They claim that since Jews had been expelled from Genoa and restricted in the 12th c., he could not be from there. However, subsequently Jews were present in Genoa and were later expelled in 1515.
So it's clear there was in fact a community present in Genoa. They then claim that Colombus never wrote in Italian. This is false, as glosses and notes in books he owned were written in Genoese and Italian respectively. Furthermore, his earliest Spanish writings were poor.
Indicating it wasn't a first language. They then use the fact that Colombo's in Genoa are unrelated as some sort of damning evidence, but that is fairly common with surnames. Valencia is confirmed as a location due to the tradition of silk weaving there, so again... weak.
To conclude, this does in no way prove Colombus was Jewish nor that he was from Valencia. There is overwhelming historical evidence that he was Genoese in his own writings and those of his contemporaries.
This doco is sensationalist slop and should not be taken as fact.
