This is the history of the descendants of Pantaleone d'Andria, a Genoese citizen, who was living on the Genoese colony of Chios in the sixteenth century.

Although Pantaleone's descendants have variously spelt their family name d'Andria, d'Andrea, Dandria and de Andria the very earliest written references to the family on Chios – the 1569 will of Antonio d’Andria, or the Chios baptism registers dating from 1583 - spell the name d'Andria. This is also by far the most commonly encountered form. Consequently it has often been supposed by family members that the d’Andrias take their name from the city of Andria, which lies in Apulia, in south east Italy, just a few miles from the port of Bari, and that this indicates either that Pantaleone or his ancestors came from thereabout, or better still, that he was descended from one of the noble families to have held the title of d'Andria. There is a noble family of d'Andria which undoubtedly originates in the Puglia region and many members of which live in and around Naples. This family was ennobled by Emperor Charles V in 1520 and it is perfectly possible that Pantaleone descended from a branch of this family.

However considerable efforts have uncovered no trace of a d'Andria family having been resident or playing any role in the history of Genoa before the sixteenth century. There was at least one family bearing the patronymic D'Andrea living in Genoa from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries (although care should be taken with the sources from that period where d'Andrea may be used simply to mean that the individual concerned was a 'son of Andrea', rather than that he bore D'Andrea as a surname).

In the seventeenth century an Odoardo Ganduccio wrote a history of the Genoese family of D'Andrea in which he wrote:

Several prominent individuals from Genoese history bearing the D'andrea name are listed although it is not obvious that all belong to the same family.

Two essential Chios history books assert explicitly that the d'Andrias of Chios are descended from one Leonardo d'Andrea of Ragusa, who was said to be a famous Genoese fortress-builder, and who conducted executed extensive works to Chios' major fortification, the Kastro, in 1427.