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 58.8 years (median 63), the longest-lived line remains Miele at a 72.4-year average, backed by 30 qualifying adults. Delisa and Martucci hold their spots, but Pizzi moves into fourth at 65.7, pushing Stavola out of the top five for the first time (Stavola now sits just behind at 65.5, essentially tied with Caporrino). The shortest-lived is Curcio, at a 49.5-year average; Truglio, Baialardo, Gruccio, and Barbella follow close behind, all still under 53 years. The gap between the top and bottom of the list sits at just under 23 years — a reminder that these rankings, especially near the bottom, can still move as the tree grows.