As starting this board, this is just for the Albanian Surname Kuqi. It has been around for quite some time, although i'm having difficultly gathering data for it, and am completely unsure on what records the Ottoman Empire took (and destroyed).
What I do know is that part of the Kuqi family left Himarë, Vlorë, Albania 1482-1485 arriving 1486-1487 around Palermo, settling in Piana Degli Albenesi in 1488, or in the second wave, leaving from Koróni, Peloponnisos, Greece, arriving in Piana Degli Albenesi in 1534. Logic would dictate that it was probably in the first wave.
Over the years Kuqi changed to Cucci, Cucchi, Cucciara, and for my family, Cucciarre'.
All related familes have similar names, which have their respective forums.
Please add to it any connections, especially data pre-1485, such as Le Cadastre de l'an 1485 du sandjak de Shkoder (which could possibly be such a vault of data):
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Library/fhlcatalog/supermain...Thanks,
Jason Real