The Christopher Columbus family tree, from Genoa to the Dukes of Veragua

The Christopher Columbus family tree starts in the Republic of Genoa, where Columbus was born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, by the consensus of scholars.² His father Domenico Colombo was a wool weaver in Genoa and Savona who also kept a cheese stand, where the boy worked, and his mother was Susanna Fontanarossa.^2,1 The family moved to Savona in 1470, and by his own account Columbus went to sea at fourteen.²

Writers have proposed other origins for him over the centuries, Aragon and Portugal among them, often to claim him for their own country. Most scholars have discounted these ideas, so this chart follows the Genoese record.²

Columbus had three brothers and a sister, Bartholomew, Giovanni Pellegrino, Giacomo and Bianchinetta.^1,2 Giacomo was known in Spain as Diego, which makes two Diegos on the chart, the brother and the son.²

Bartholomew, born about 1461, ran a workshop of maps in Lisbon and later governed Hispaniola as adelantado while his brother was away. He founded Santo Domingo between 1496 and 1498.^3,2 His article gives his death at Santo Domingo as 12 August 1514 in one place and 1515 in another. He left a natural daughter, Maria, named in a family will of 1511.³

Filipa Moniz Perestrelo was born on Porto Santo, an island of Madeira, in about 1455. Her father Bartolomeu Perestrelo was a Portuguese nobleman who had held Porto Santo as donatary captain, and her mother was Isabel Moniz.^4,2 She married Columbus in 1479 at Vila Baleira on Porto Santo.⁴

Their son Diego was born on Porto Santo in 1479 or 1480. Filipa died between 1479 and 1484, and the cause is not known.^6,4 She is the only wife the Christopher Columbus family tree records with certainty.

In 1487 Columbus, then seeking support in Castile, took up with Beatriz Enríquez de Arana, an orphan of about twenty from near Córdoba.^2,5 Most historians conclude that they never married. His last codicil of 1506 calls her only the mother of his son, and asks Diego to keep up her allowance. Her cousin Diego de Arana sailed on the first voyage of 1492.⁵

Their son Fernando was born at Córdoba in 1488, and Columbus recognised him. The day differs from source to source. His own article gives 15 August, his mother’s gives 28 September, and his father’s says July.^7,5,2 The Mariners’ Museum names Filipa as the mother of both sons, against the other sources.¹

Columbus died at Valladolid on 20 May 1506.^2,1 Diego inherited his claims and in 1509 became second Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy of the Indies, and he served twice as Governor of the Indies.⁶ King Ferdinand pressed him to marry María de Toledo y Rojas, and they had five children. Diego died at La Puebla de Montalbán on 23 February 1526.⁶

Fernando kept his father’s books, whose remains are now part of the Biblioteca Colombina at Seville Cathedral, and wrote a life of his father that was published in Italian at Venice. He died at Seville on 12 July 1539, and his article says nothing of a wife or children.⁷

After Diego died, his family went to law over the rents, offices and titles of the Indies.⁶ His son Luis Colón, born at Santo Domingo between 1519 and 1522, settled in 1536. He gave up the other claims for an annuity of 10,000 ducats, the island of Jamaica as a fief, an estate in Veragua and the titles of Duke of Veragua and Marquess of Jamaica.⁸

Luis died at Oran on 3 February 1572. The duchy passed to his daughter Felipa and the title of admiral to Diego Colón de Toledo y Pravia, so the Christopher Columbus family tree runs on in the Spanish nobility.⁸