Surnames.

The earliest surnames in Sassano.

Of the 48 documented surnames on this page, 47 already show up in individuals born in the 1600s — some as early as the 1590s. All of these are estimated ("ABT" or "BEF") birth years rather than exact-dated records, reconstructed backward from later baptism, marriage, and death entries, so treat them as approximate. Two of these entries are recorded under an earlier spelling that later evolved into the modern surname: Fornino appears from 1608 as Florendino, and Romanelli appears from 1620 as Romaniello — both names track the same family lines, with the older spelling gradually giving way to the newer one over the following century or two. One surname — Finizio — doesn't yet have an indexed individual born before 1700; that likely reflects gaps in what's been transcribed so far rather than the family arriving later.

This table was substantially revised this update: recent work extending several branches back into the 1600s pushed nine surnames' earliest record further back than what this table previously showed — in a few cases by decades. Ricciardone moved from the 1640s to about 1610, d'Alessio from about 1629 to before 1601, Abbruzzese from the 1680s all the way back to about 1619, and Petrizzo from 1640 to about 1615, among others. None of this reflects a family arriving later than previously thought — it's the opposite: earlier records that simply hadn't been connected into the tree yet. One nice discovery along the way: the "new" earliest Feminella and the "new" earliest Ricciardone turn out to be the same couple, Martino Feminella & Perna Ricciardone — see the First Families table just below.

First families.

For each of the 48 surnames on this page, the earliest individual on record and — where the tree connects them — the spouse who completes that earliest known family unit. Most couples show no separate birthplace recorded for either partner, which in this parish-register tradition means Sassano itself; where a different town is explicitly recorded, it's called out in the last column. Two names stand out: Giovanni Vincenzo di Lisa was born in Monte San Giacomo, and Matteo Vincenzo Arenare in Morigerati — both small towns in the same Vallo di Diano district as Sassano, suggesting marriage brought them in rather than the family originating locally. Neither is confirmed as the very first of that name to arrive; they're simply the earliest the tree currently traces.