First Americans 'reached Europe five centuries before Columbus discoveries' When Christopher Columbus paraded his newly discovered American Indians through the streets of Spanish towns at the end of the 15th century, he was not in fact introducing the first native Americans to Europe, according to new research.
Scientists who have studied the genetic past of an Icelandic family now claim the first Americans reached Europe a full five centuries before Columbus bumped into an island in the Bahamas during his first voyage of discovery in 1492. Researchers said today that a woman from the Americas probably arrived in Iceland 1,000 years ago, leaving behind genes that are reflected in about 80 Icelanders today. The link was first detected among inhabitants of Iceland, home to one of the most thorough gene-mapping programs in the world, several years ago. Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet. Ancestry.