I used to know the names of the three ships but now I can only think of Santa Maria. Yes there was no Republic of Italy back then, but his descendants live in Italy I believe and consider themselves Italian. As far as his ancestry most believe that he was of Italian descent, but there are others who believe that he may have been of Sephardic descent, Greek descent, and/ or Spanish descent. People intermarried back then too so who knows. An Old Timer from Italy told me years ago that his real last name was Columbo and not Columbus.