Columbus may well have originated from Ibiza

The Balearic University has now joined the race to prove, once and for all, that Christopher Columbus was from the Balearics, or at least Cataluña. While a team of Spanish scientists study DNA of Columbus's brother to establish whether the explorer was from Majorca or Italy, the Balearic University announced yesterday that a team intends to test the DNA taken from Columbus's brother Diego, with samples taken from family members in the Balearics, Valencia and Cataluña. The university's professor of genetics, Misericordia Ramón, said that DNA samples will enable them to end the debate of Columbus's origins once and for all and silence those who claim the explorer was from Genoa in Italy. While the team of Spanish scientists who exhumed Diego, Columbus's brother are looking at either Majorca or Genoa, the Balearic University is claiming that the founder of America was in fact from Ibiza. The first task is to compare the remains and DNA of Diego Columbus with the two suspected tombs of his explorer brother in Seville cathedral and Columbus lighthouse in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic. There is however another theory, that the alleged remains of Diego, exhumed in September, are in fact the remains of his brother and therefore Christopher Columbus's remains were shared between Seville and Santo Domingo. The Balearic research team is convinced that Colombus and his two brothers, were all from a Catalan family whose original surname was Colom. It appears that at the end of the eighth century, the surname Colom was only found in Cataluña. Study of the Catalan language and its history has provided important information about where the explorer originated from and now all that remains is for the DNA tests to be carried out. The Balearic team admit that the decision to start DNA testing for Columbus “has opened a can of worms,” but at the same time, will finally end the debate about his origins. The emergence of a team backing the Ibiza theory will however split the Balearic movement which has claimed for years that Colombus is from the south east of Majorca - a claim hotly disputed by the Italians.