Lijsbeth Arabus, SM/PROG - Lack of proof that Lijsbeth Arabus was Lijsbeth Sanders's mother

Following the mention of doubt that Lijsbeth Arabus was the mother of Lijsbeth Sandersz van de Kaap, SM at https://www.geni.com/discussions/152598?by_or_about=600000001708920... :

Indeed, 3 little slave girls (Lijsbeth and Cornelia from Abyssinia, and Eva from Madagascar) did arrive in the Cape in 1657 but I can see no proof that they were of royal descent or that Lijsbeth Arabus was Lijsbeth Sanders’s mother:

http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/first-slaves-cape : " In March 1657, three little slave girls arrived at the Cape, Cornelia, Lijsbeth and Kleine Eva. Cornelia, aged 10, and Lijsbeth, aged 12, were two so called ‘Arabian’ slave girls from Abyssinia, present day Ethiopia. [Abyssinia was in East Africa and part of what is still known as the Horn of Africa. It is now known as Ethiopia] They had been brought to the Cape by the French Admiral De la Roche Saint-Andre, and were presented as a gift to Van Riebeeck’s wife.
With these two girls came a further little slave girl, only five years of age. This girl was called ‘Kleine Eva’. She had been sent to the Cape as gift by the King of Antongil in Madagascar, in order to show the Dutch at the Cape that the King was interested establishing a slave-trade network with them. All three girls were very young when they arrived, and it is likely they were all put into the household of Van Riebeeck. How their lives unfolded after their arrival at the Cape is unknown."

No transcripts or source references are given in http://www.e-family.co.za/ffy/g6/p6297.htm for claims that the young slave girls were "Arabian princesses" or Madagascar royalty.

Two documents referenced in FFY make no mention of any royal status:

[S418] Anna J. Böeseken, Slaves and Free Blacks at the Cape 1658-1700, p.8-9; . . . as did two slave children from Abyssinia. These two were little Arab girls, 10 and 12 years of age. They had also been a gift to Maria van Riebeeck from the French Admiral De La Roche St. André who had visited the Cape in March 1657. Their names were Cornelia and Lijsbeth.

[S658] "Muster of Private & Company Slaves (Rijckloff van Goens, 16 April 1657)
... 1 female slave [Cornelia Arabus van Abisinna] with the Junior Merchant [Roelof de Man (from Culemborg)]
1 female slave [Lijsbeth Arabus van Abisinna] with the Gardener [Hendrick Hendricksz: Boom (from Amsterdam)] ..."

FFY: "Three descendants of Lijsbeth Sanders through her granddaughter Isabella Potgieter have tested positive for the mtDNA haplogroup L3b3. It is therefor fairly safe to assume that Lisjbeth Sanders was also L3b3."
Agreed..

FFY; "And if Lijsbeth Sanders was indeed the daughter of Lisjbeth Arabus, then Lijsbeth Arabus would also be L3b3."
I see no evidence that this is the case. It is a very big “if. My feeling is that this is unlikely.

FFY: "L3b3 is a sub-clade of L3b which in highest frequency is found in both north and west Africa."
Especially west Africa. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_L3_(mtDNA)

L3b is uncommon in Ethiopia or Arabia. In fact in a study in 2004 by well-known geneticists, zero L3b lineages could be found in Ethiopia or Arabia (Yemen) :
Ethiopian Mitochondrial DNA Heritage: Tracking Gene Flow Across and Around the Gate of Tears Kivisild T, Reidla M, Metspalu E, et al. (November 2004). "Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears". Am. J. Hum. Genet. 75 (5): 752–70. PMC 1182106  . PMID 15457403. doi:10.1086/425161.
High-resolution phylogenetic analysis of 270 Ethiopian and 115 Yemeni mitochondrial DNAs was performed in a worldwide context, to explore gene flow across the Red and Arabian Seas.
“No L3b or L3e lineages that are widely spread in West African populations and Bantu-speaking southeastern Africans (Salas et al. 2002; Rosa et al. 2004) were found in Ethiopians. In contrast, five Yemeni sequences belonged to haplogroup L3e, consistent with gene flow mediated by the Arab slave trade from southeastern Africa…”

As in a many cases, we may never be able to positively identify Lijsbeth Sanders’s mother by name, but the available evidence suggests that she was most likely a west-African who came to the Cape in 1658 on board either the Amersfoort or Hasselt.

I think I have gone full circle and come back to the same point I was trying to make on the above-mentioned “Regina van Rapenberg van Guinea” discussion

It is fine to list speculative relationships with the purpose of further delving into the facts, but unless we make it very clear that these links are purely speculative for the purposes of further exploration only, there is the risk that these speculations gradually start to become accepted as “fact” and people talk about these people as if they are genuinely the stamouers of the line in question. This really concerns me, since countless misunderstandings and/or inaccurate couplings can become entrenched in this way.

We must always remain vigilant, check up on source references and not accept anyone’s say-so, assumptions, speculations etc as fact without checking that it really is. If we do this and attach source references for all confirmed facts as we go, we will do great research, have accurate family trees and not waste valuable time on inaccurate couplings.

I see Lijsbeth Arabus actually has SM status…?? I do not know if any other lines have been confirmed to descend from her that warrants this, but as far as Lijsbeth Sanders is concerned I really can’t see any evidence that Lijsbeth Arabus is her mother.

P.S. I noticed there are 2 profiles for Lijsbeth Arabus…???
Lijsbeth Arabus, SM/PROG and Lijsbeth Arabus, SM/PROG?through=6000000000580529618