Long-lived and short-lived families.

The first attempt at this ran into an obvious trap: family lines with a lot of descendants who emigrated to Chicago looked dramatically longer-lived than everyone else — the "Rich" line (the Chicago-Americanized branch of Riccio) topped the list at a 73-year average, well clear of anyone else. But that's not a family trait. Most of that line lived their adult lives in 20th-century America with modern medicine and sanitation, not 18th- or 19th-century Sassano. Comparing that fairly against families who stayed in Italy for centuries isn't measuring genetics — it's measuring which families happened to catch a later, healthier era.

So the numbers below exclude anyone with a Chicago or Illinois connection entirely, comparing only people who lived and died in and around Sassano itself, and only counting adults — deaths at 15 or older, since infant and child mortality reflects a different set of causes than adult longevity does. Only surnames with at least 20 qualifying adult deaths are included, so a family of three isn't skewing the picture.

Against a baseline adult average of 58.3 years (median 62), the longest-lived line remains Miele at a 72.4-year average, backed by 32 qualifying adults. Delisa holds second. Borgia, which entered the rankings after crossing this page's 20-person minimum, holds third place at 68.6 years across 24 people — still a small sample, and one that can move a fair amount as more records arrive. Martucci, Caporrino and Stavola round out the top six, with Pizzi seventh. Stavola folds in a branch of the family recorded as "di Stavola" in some records — the same line under an older form of the surname, not a separate one, combined into a single 279-person figure. The shortest-lived is Curcio, at a 47.6-year average; Baialardo and Truglio follow close behind, then Esposito (52.0 years across 23 people), di Lorenzo (52.8 across 60), and finally Barbella, Orlando and Gruccio at 53.1 to 53.3 (53, 61 and 62 people), with Vasquez, Bellezza and Ricciardone just behind. This update's movement was mostly in the middle of the list, with some reshuffling at both ends. At the top, Setaro loses an adult (now 135) but its average rises from 63.0 to 63.2, which lifts it from eleventh to eighth, past Fornino, Biancamano and Abbatemarco, each of which slips a place; Stavola adds four adults (now 279) and edges up to 63.9, holding sixth. At the short-lived end, Truglio adds an adult (now 27) and its average eases from 50.3 to 50.26, which keeps it second shortest-lived. Battista loses an adult (now 44) and its average rises from 53.2 to 54.0, which carries it from 89th to 83rd and out of the 53-year cluster into the bottom fifteen at fourteenth shortest-lived, while Petriello (56 adults, 53.5) falls from 81st to 85th, Ricciardone (89 adults, 53.5) from 85th to 86th, and Picone drops out of the bottom fifteen. In the middle, d'Onza adds two adults (now 159) and its average falls from 59.75 to 59.3, taking it from 27th to 30th, as di Brizzi, Petrizzo (415 adults) and Pinto each move up a place. Burzo adds two (now 96) and rises from 58th to 55th (57.1), Corvino adds three (now 63) and climbs from 68th to 64th (56.1), and Lopardi loses an adult and moves up from 62nd to 60th. Ferro adds an adult (now 200) and slips from 44th to 45th (58.0) as Cammarano moves up to 44th, Trotta falls from 70th to 72nd (331 adults, 55.2), and Capuano adds three (now 139) and slips from 69th to 70th (55.35). The overall adult average holds at 58.3 years across 12,570 lifespans, 36 more than last update. The gap between the top and bottom of the list sits at just under 25 years — a reminder that these rankings, especially near the bottom, can still move as the tree grows.