In Need Of An Expert Opinion

[scorpione]

Since my grandfather's name is Caivano and there are two towns of Caivano near to where I know he was born in 1889 is it a good guess that:
Since surnames began to be used around the 14th century his people were in this general area that far back in time.
Also, is it possible to know if it is more likely that his male branch goes all the way back to ancient native populations (Samniti Oscan etc). Or would you guess that at some point his ancestors were brought into Italy by conquerors? I mention this last since a DNA test I took through Natl. Geog. indicated a haplogroup of R1a which is more typically found in Eastern European (Slavic ) populations.

As always I marvel at the depth of knowledge out there and appreciate the many kindnesses. Joe

[MMaddi]

When considering DNA testing in regard to your ancestry, you always have to think in the long term, hundreds and thousands of years. This is because, especially when discussing a haplogroup (which R1a is), the mutations occur very rarely.

Although there are no hard and fast rules which link one haplogroup to one nation or ethnic group, it is true, as you say, that R1a is mainly found in eastern Europe. It is also very common in Scandinavia.

Looking back at the history of southern Italy, the Normans ruled there for about 250 years during the Middle Ages. The Normans were from the area of France called Normandy. But many of the Normans were descended from the Vikings of Scandinavia. In order to stop their plundering of the coast of France, the king of France bought them off by giving them Normandy to rule.

So it's possible that your southern Italian line descends from Normans who came there 1000 years ago. By the way, if you're not aware already, there's a Campania project at Family Tree DNA, which has a website at www.familytreedna.com/public/CampaniaProvinceofItaly. You can add your results to that project.

Mike Maddi
Co-Administrator of the Sicily Project

[scorpione]

Mike,

Thanks for the interesting info about the Vikings and Normandy.I suspect we shall never know for sure but the journey is almost always more intersesting than the arrival.