ABOUT MY SURNAME
Scansi (or Scanzi, as it was later written in Tuscan Italian) was a Venetian military family from Brescia. By the late 17th century the father of Bartolomeo Scansi moved to Sumartin, Brač, presumably to start a new life with a paga de guaso. Although Bartolomeo's name was written both in Venetian and Latin (as was customary for nobility), the exact date of birth was not recorded, and curiously enough, there is no record of the names of his parents. Bartolomeo's second child, Pelegrini Scansi (b. 1735) is the ancestor of all currently living Skansi. The Skansi family in Brač was a naval merchant family, and my great-great-grandfather Luca was the last member of the family to be a native speaker of Veneto and during his lifetime he changed the spelling of his first name and last name to use a "k". Luca Scansi owned an unknown number of ships, but it was certain he had at least one ship, and had acquired a second ship, a bracera named Mirvami. He died at the end of WWII. His son, Petar Skansi, during his life owned and co-owned several ships, among which his pride was his loger named Darko, commissioned in honor of his first son, my grandfather, which he captained up until the end of WWII.
Scansi Coat of Arms from Dizionario storico blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabili italiane estinte e fiorenti vol.II, p. 503, Comm. G.B. di Crollalanza, Pisa 1888.
The land of Petar Skansi in Sumartin left after the 1946 confiscation is shown in the image in blue.
It highly probable (but unconfirmed) that the Scansi family was the old Scanisi family from Constantinopole recorded at the Serrata (1297/1298), and which turned baranboto after the loss of Venetian holdings in Constantinopole. The most common current variations used by expatriates (aside from "Skansi" and "Scansi") are "Skansie", "Scansie" and "Scanzi", found mostly in Argentina, New Zealand and the USA. There is an interesting curiosity connected with the Skansi family name. Dalmatian-Croatian recognizes the verb "skansati", which, quite differently from the similar Italian verb "to slide over", means "to squander one's wealth". The verb is probably derived from the family name (and not the other way round) in reference to the (Scanisi) barnaboto family history.
References:
Dizionario storico blasonico delle famiglie nobili e notabili italiane estinte e fiorenti vol.II, p. 503, Comm. G.B. di Crollalanza,, Pisa 1888.
https://www.geni.com/people/Bartul-Skansi/6000000017186298032
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriziato_(Venezia)