question on Sallust

[Neapolis]

Hello everyone:

I want to say what a great find this site is , and how interesting I find Roman history. I stumbled upon this site while doing some geneological research. My last name is Sallusto, and after having learned a little bit about Gaius Sallustius I had to ask myself the obvious question. Could there be some sort of ancestry there. I live in the U.S. but my family is originally from Naples, Italy. It is not a very common surname either here or there, and to this day those with that surmane are still located in Naples and the outlying towns of the campania region. In my family the first names Giuglio and Cesare were very common and were passed down for generations. I know this is a real stretch, but does anyone think that this could be possible? I realize this is not a geneology website and I apologize in advance for bringing up such a question. Thank you for any input that can be offered.

Thank you and Buon Anno

[Nephele]

Welcome to UNRV, Neapolis.

 

You're right, Sallusto is an extremely rare surname in the U.S.

 

Additionally, Kajanto makes no mention of "Sallusto" having been recorded as a Roman cognomen, so it seems likely that the modern-day Italian surname of "Sallusto" may have been derived directly from the nomen gentilicium of "Sallustius."

 

This doesn't necessarily mean that your family is descended from the ancient Roman historian Sallust, though, as the hereditary surnames of European origin with which we are today familiar didn't much exist prior to the 11th century. It could be that a medieval Italian ancestor of yours simply fancied himself to be in some way connected with the Roman Sallust, or this ancestor was a scholar whom others compared to Sallust, and this might be the way in which "Sallusto" eventually became the hereditary name of your family tree.

 

Just another note: In Italy, the Roman historian Sallust is referred to as "Sallustio," so your surname of "Sallusto" is most likely a variant of "Sallustio." Also, the Italian surname of "Sallustio," while still rare in the U.S., appears to be slightly more commonly found than "Sallusto" (although this could also be attributed to spelling errors in census records). If you're doing genealogical research, you may want to explore a possible connection between your family and the Sallustio family.

 

-- Nephele

[caesar novus]

I realize this is not a geneology website and I apologize

A surname just tracks one side of the family, or maybe not even that very accurately. With the advent of easy self-service DNA testing that can be related to geographical regions, I wondered what the typical DNA profile was for a modern descendant of Roman Republicans. I am talking about services like decodeme.com and I refer to the Republic because the Empire probably brought in a wide mix of genes.

 

They do this seperately for male and female ancestory by looking at only some weird genes that are cloned to the same sex children, and not mixed by the parents. Amazingly they can ID the last unique mutation, guess it's date, and relate it to approximate geographical location. I believe if you are lucky you have a recent mutation (don't worry, just in junk genes that doesn't cause a problem but serves as a flag) that relates to a time and place only about twice as old as Roman era.

 

In my case there was a false alarm about Sardinian maternal ancestory. But that mitochondrial flag was so extremely old that that it it had spread all around since women emerged from caves. The male y group flag was recent and exactly agreed with the 6+ centuries of marriage records I have, which (sigh) pretty much work against Roman regional heritage on either side.

 

I may be explaining this poorly, but it is facinating about what can be done in some cases, maybe for Italy or maybe not. BTW females lack their fathers Y-chromosome flags, so may want to get a mouth swab of a brother or father. I believe National Geographic will do the male and female test seperately at half price each. Males needn't do this because they do inherit the female mitochondrials.

 

P.S. an example of some Italian gene flags is in the middle of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-DNA_haplogr...y_ethnic_groups ...or lost somewhere in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_...tDNA.29_testing

[Neapolis]

I realize this is not a geneology website and I apologize

A surname just tracks one side of the family, or maybe not even that very accurately. With the advent of easy self-service DNA testing that can be related to geographical regions, I wondered what the typical DNA profile was for a modern descendant of Roman Republicans. I am talking about services like decodeme.com and I refer to the Republic because the Empire probably brought in a wide mix of genes.

 

They do this seperately for male and female ancestory by looking at only some weird genes that are cloned to the same sex children, and not mixed by the parents. Amazingly they can ID the last unique mutation, guess it's date, and relate it to approximate geographical location. I believe if you are lucky you have a recent mutation (don't worry, just in junk genes that doesn't cause a problem but serves as a flag) that relates to a time and place only about twice as old as Roman era.

 

In my case there was a false alarm about Sardinian maternal ancestory. But that mitochondrial flag was so extremely old that that it it had spread all around since women emerged from caves. The male y group flag was recent and exactly agreed with the 6+ centuries of marriage records I have, which (sigh) pretty much work against Roman regional heritage on either side.

 

I may be explaining this poorly, but it is facinating about what can be done in some cases, maybe for Italy or maybe not. BTW females lack their fathers Y-chromosome flags, so may want to get a mouth swab of a brother or father. I believe National Geographic will do the male and female test seperately at half price each. Males needn't do this because they do inherit the female mitochondrials.

 

P.S. an example of some Italian gene flags is in the middle of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-DNA_haplogr...y_ethnic_groups ...or lost somewhere in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogical_...tDNA.29_testing

Thankyou for the replies. I find all this very interesting, and plan to keep learning more about ancient Rome. What a great site. Thanks again.