I've always been fascinated by those plaster casts of victims of the eruption who had no time to get into a boat and sail away and died the horrible death of being covered over by extremely hot lava. Though they probably died quickly, there was so much terror and there had to be some excruciating pain before their spirits fled their bodies. You may have seen plaster casts of some of them. An exhibit made the rounds of museums a while back and I went to the Getty in Malibu to see it. This fascinating article from Ars Technica by Jennifer Ouellette reveals that a surname study was done recently by Miani University archeologist and historian, Steven Tuck.
ARS TECHNICA SCIENCE VESUVIUS SURVIVORS FLED NORTH - SURNAME STUDY
EXCERPT: Tuck spent several months developing eight separate categories of evidence (four primary and four supporting) and compiling databases of family names from Roman communities around LATIUM and CAMPANIA. These included the origin cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum as well as the most likely refugee cities (Capua, Camae, Naples, Nola, Osti, Paestum, Puteoili, Salerno, Surrentum, Ulubrae, and Velia.)
Primary evidence includes specific individuals cited in inscriptions in both the origin and refuge cites, cases where Pompeian or Herculaneum names started appearing in communities where they hadn't existed before, and explicit references to origin....
