Human migration in Italy studied through surnames spatial distribution.

Variation in surname distribution can be used to reconstruct the patterns of human migration in the past and, hence, to enhance the knowledge of microevolutionary processes. The analysis of surname distribution in Italy was carried out at different levels of territorial subdivision, in the whole of the peninsula or in areas of particular interest as Sardinia island. Recent and past collections of data allowed us: 1) to obtain estimates of immigration rates accounting for the economic development of the different areas and, then, for their capacity to receive migrants at different times and 2) to follow the traces of individual emigration from a region to other regions identifying, at the same time, the geographical, cultural (linguistic) and socio -economic factors that could have determined the intensity and direction of the migration flow.