doyouwanttoknowcolumbusportuguesefather

Everyone knows that many thousands of articles and books have been written concerning the probable nationality of the famous navigator usually known by the name Christopher Columbus. During centuries several historians have attributed the nationality of this navigator as being Genovese, Spanish, Catalan, Maiorcan, Galician and even Greek. But in general the so called historians and reporters, Portuguese and foreign, forget to mention the Portuguese theory. It seems that they do it purposely!

I have already demonstrated, point by point, in an article which appears on this website --- http://www.dightonrock.com/todososdocumetnosdocolomboitalia.htm --- that ALL the documents attributed to the Genovese (Italian) theory are FALSE! And concerning the other theories: Spanish, Galician, Catalan and even Greek there is NO coeval and irrefutable document that could demonstrate the truthfulness of any of these theories. If such document existed the defenders of such a theory, would by now, had launched such a noise and an unbearable uproar, all over the world!

Finally, at the beginning of the XXI century, the opportunity to consider seriously the Portuguese theory has arrived!

For centuries there had been in Portugal a historical tradition that the navigator Cristóvão Colon (Columbus) or Salvador Fernandes Zarco was the son of a Portuguese Prince. His father was Dom Fernando, First Duke of Beja (Alentejo, central southern part of Portugal), and son of King Dom Duarte, who at the age of 19 got pregnant a young lady of the Royal Court, named Isabel Gonsalves Zarco, daughter of João Gonçalves Zarco, the discoverer of the Island of Porto Santo (1418) and of the Madeira Island (1419).

The young lady became pregnant and went to Cuba ( Alentejo , Portugal ), twenty kilometers north of Beja to give birth to a boy who was named Salvador Fernandes Zarco. There is no birth certificate. There is no certificate of baptism either. However, various historians defend the Portuguese theory by analyzing documents that are of the same period.

(1) Documents coeval or of the same period when the navigator was alive between 1452 until his death on May 2, 1506.

Here is a list of the documents that testify in favor of the Portuguese theory:

(1) The First Papal Bull by Alexander VI, of May 3rd, 1493 which reveals the old Portuguese name Cristofõm Colon.

(2) The Second Papal Bull of May 4^th, 1493, with the old Portuguese name Cristofõm Colon

(4) Analysis of his Monogram with the Portuguese name Salvador Fernandes Zarco.

(5) Analysis of the navigator's Coat of Arms and comparison of the Portuguese National Coat of Arms.

(6) More than 40 Portuguese pa\lace names which the navigator gave to the islands, capes, bays, etc. in the Caribbean Sea after his four voyages. (There is NOT even ONE name in Italian among these 40 place names!).

The detailed explanation of these six items are in the respective articles in my website. Please. Look for them under the same titles.

During my life I always had to lovers: Medicine and History. When I got tired of one, I turned myself to the other. It has been for me a most happy and healthy symbiosis!

Now, that I am retired from Medicine for seven ears, and extraordinary event has occurred. The moment has arrived when my historical investigations coincide with my medical investigations!

Since 1999, I have been looking for an Institute in Portugal that could be able to do DNA studies on the old bones of the First Duke of Beja, and also on João Gonçalves Zarco and their descendents. I kept asking my medical colleagues and even university professors of Anthropology in Portugal if such scientific institute existed in Portugal and I always got the same answer that no such institutions ever existed in Portugal . I was informed that when there was a need to do DNA studies in old bones, such samples were sent out to other European countries, or even to America ! Bones in mausoleums are good for DNA studies up to one hundred thousand years!

Bu I refused to accept such negative information and I continue to pursue my research with perseverance and enthusiasm.

Finally, I found the best scientific Institute in Portugal: The Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine with main headquarters in Coimbra , as part of the Coimbra University Medical School , my alma matter!

Using the magic service of the Internet I was able to contact Professor-Doctor Francisco Corte Real, who sent me by e-mail the following message:

I was extremely happy with this news from Professor Corte Real! We both agreed to meet in Professor’s office, on Friday, May 13^th, 2005. So at 10:30 AM, my wife and I were received amicable and enthusiastically by Professor Corte Real and we spent four hours in his company!

(1) We found out that Professor Francisco Corte Real married the youngest daughter of my special medical colleague (same medical class), Professor –Doctor Luís Manuel Meneses de Almeida.

(2) That Professor Francisco Corte Real is a direct descendent of the Corte Real Family and therefore has the same genetic composition as Miguel Corte Real who made the inscriptions on Dighton Rock in 1511.

(3) And that Professor Francisco Corte Real’s Medical Thesis, completed five years ago, consisted of the influence of the Portuguese genome in the peoples of Portuguese Guinea, Cape Verde Islands and also São Tomé and Príncipe.

(1) His scientific team to make DNA diagnosis possesses all the modern technology and know how equal to any FBI Laboratory in U. S. A.

(2) The moneys to maintain the Portuguese National Institute of Legal Medicine do not depend on the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra , but are sponsored directly by the Portuguese Ministry of Justice. This way his Institute is total independent, as it should be.

After this pleasant introduction, we moved into the challenge of the search of the Portuguese nationality of Cristóvão Colombo as he is known even in Portugal . I gave Professor Corte Real copies of all coeval documents, as described above, that my wife and I have collected for several years, and also samples of my monographs and articles about the same matter.

I told Professor Corte Real that my participation on these historical investigations can be compared to an Olympic estaffete race, and that from now on, I give him the torch for him and his scientific team to reach and cross the finish line with the scientific demonstration if the famous navigators was, on was not, Portuguese!

I also told him that because we are both physicians, therefore we have to be scientists. As scientists we have to have the courage and the guts to face the scientific truth revealed by the DNA findings. And we both agreed completely with this statement.

During our conversation, I informed Professor Corte Real that on Monday, May 16, 2005, my wife and I were going to Madeira Island to look for João Gonçalves Zarco’s mausoleum and his family.

Immediately Professor Corte Real asked his medical secretary to call Dr. Pita Leite Silva, the Director of the Legal Institute, in Funchal, Madeira, so he could guide us to the Convent of Santa Clara which was ordered to be built by João Gonçalves Zarco, who was the discoverer of Madeira in 1419 and also its first Governor.

When we arrived in Funchal, at 11Am, and on the same day, Dr. Pita took us in his car, my wife and I, to visit the Convent of Santa Clara . We were received with opened arms by Mother Superior Isabel Gouveia, who showed us all the rooms and the main church of the monastery. She guided us to all the tombs we were looking for.


Dr. Luciano da Silva e Dr. Pita Leite Silva when they were visiting the Convent of Santa Clara	Teacher Sílvia da Silva taking notes together with Mother Superior Isabel Gouveia over the tomb of João Gonsalves Zarco son in law and his daughter at the entrance of the main church in the Convent of Santa Clara.

In front of the main altar, underneath the wooden floor, there are three tombs: of João Gonçalves Zarco, his wife and their eldest daughter who was the First Mother Superior of the Santa Clara Convent.

At the entrance of the same church there is another tomb of another daughter and her husband. And in the cloisters there are two tombs of two granddaughters of João Gonsalves Zarco. We did not expect to find such an abundance of tombs.

In front of the main altar there are the tombs of João Gonsalves Zarco, his wife and their eldest daughter. Dr. Pita is watching Mother Superior and my wife Sílvia taking notes.

We are most grateful to Dr. Pita and also to Mother Superior for their absolute necessary cooperation for us to attain our desideratum. God Bless them! We returned to Continental Portugal satisfied after our historical and tourist trip to the beautiful islands of Madeira and Porto Santo.

In Madeira we had the good fortune of meeting my medical colleague of our same medical class at the Medical School in Coimbra, Dr. Jaime Jardim Fernandes, Orthopedist, who together with his charming wife and their family, showed us the most pleasant places of Madeira. They even took us to their special house in Seixal for a delightful meal and with their own best Madeira wine! We even had occasion to review our “academic adventures” that occurred in Coimbra when we were medical students… We will never forget the enthusiastic reception that they gave us, while my wife and I were in Madeira .


Statue of the Grandfather of Columbus down town in Funchal, Madeira.	Statue of Columbus in the Public Garden of the City of Funchal, Madeira

Two years ago – May 2003 – we had a terrible disappointment in finding out that the mausoleum of Dom Fernando, First Duke of Beja, at the Beja Museum, was empty of bones, when its Director inform us that the Napoleonic solders had opened it to get silver and gold destroying it completely!

Because of this situation my wife and I started looking for other mausoleums of members of the Dynasty of Avis.

If it is true that D. Fernando, Duke of Beja, was the biological father of Christopher Columbus, he was also a biological bother of King Dom Manuel I. If this is true, the Y chromosome of D. Fernando, Duke of Beja, and of all Y chromosomes of the male members of the Dynasty of Avis started with King João I , all have the same Y chromosomes, because the Y chromosomes NEVER change when they are transmitted directly from father to son, even in a million generations!

Continuing our pursue of mausoleums my wife and I went to the Monastery of Jerónimos in Lisbon to photograph the mausoleums of Kings Manuel I and King João III, which are both in lateral sides to of the main chapel.


King Manuel I tomb in Jerónimos	Tomb of King D. João III in Jerónimos

From Jerónimos we went to Alcobaça to photograph the tomb of Kind Dom Pedro I because this King was the biological father of King João I, therefore having the same Y chromosome. We verify that the D. Pedro I’s tomb has a large scar caused by the Napoleonic soldiers who broke into it. I doubt if this tomb has any original bones.

From Alcobaça we went to the Monastery of Batalha to photograph the mausoleums of King João I, King João II, Prince Henry, Prince Dom Pedro, and even King Dom Duarte.


Tomb of King D. João I and his wife in Batalha	Tomb of King D. João II in Batalha


Tomb of Prince Henry in Batalha	Tomb of King D. Duarte in the Unfinished Chapels in Batalha

With the photograph material that we obtained in Madeira and Continental Portugal we made a report and sent it to Professor Francisco Corte Real in Coimbra and to Dr. Pita Leite Silva in Funchal. We asked for another meeting with Professor Corte Real before returning to America to review the members of Dynasty of Avis, but also all the Dukes of the House of Bragança. Why? Because King João I was the biological father of Dom Afonso, the first Duke of the House of Bragança , and therefore they have the same Y chromosome!

So our next meeting took place, for us to make a panoramic review of how to collect the material from the Spanish side not only with bones from Christopher Columbus but also from his sons Diogo Colon and Fernando Colon and even from the Dukes of Verágua residing in Madrid, Spain because they are direct descendents of Don Diogo Colon, legitimate son of Cristóvão Colon and Filipa Moniz of Porto Santo, Madeira, Portugal.

From this meeting each one of us – Professor Corte Real and myself and my wife – will continue our researches, with the objective, if possible, for us to get together again before our return to America on June 26, 2005.

But Professor Corte Real gave us the great pleasure of visiting the Library-Museum with my name in Cavião, Vale de Cambra, on Saturday, June 25, 2005, together with his wife and their two children.


Our third meeting: Professor Corte Real and Dr. Luciano da Silva in the Library Museum in Cavião discussing the Dynasties of Avis, of the House of Bragança and of the Dukes of the Verágua in Spain.	Professor Corte Real explaining energetically the DNA technique

At this meeting we reviewed once again all male members of the Dynasty of Avis, and also of the Dynasty of the House of Bragança, and agreed that I would send letters with a report to the Duke of Bragança, Dom Duarte Pio and also to Duke of Verágua, requesting of them to give samples of their saliva for the scientific team of the Institute of Portuguese National Legal Medicine to start doing the DNA studies.

Professor Francisco Corte Real understanding Dr. Luciano da Silva ’s enthusiasm for historical research wrote on the Library-Museum Book of Visitors these words:

“ Dr. Luciano da Silva is an extraordinary example of perseverance, dedication and scientific depth which should serve as model to all those who visit this illustrious house of knowledge. It was for me an honor to share this and many other days in his company and his knowledge.

This research of DNA is of a tremendous responsibility! It will have a great impact in the History of the World, in the last 500 years!

But Professor Francisco Corte Real is indeed very enthusiastic with this enormous project. Our sincere best wishes for his success. It will be a great victory for him, for the University of Coimbra , for Portugal and even for the Portuguese scattered all over the world!

Please note: We are preparing a series of articles to explain what are chromosomes and genes and also the three Dynasties of the Avis, of the House of Bragança and of the Dukes of Verágua in Spain, so that we will be ale to understand clearly the comparative diagnosis of Y chromosomes from Portugal’s side and also from Spain’s side.