Hi Jennifer I am your brother from Greece - Crete, son of John (Ioannis) Falangas and Maria Pologeorgis, The information I have about our family is that the origin is from the island of Andros and specifically from the village of Andros, the word "falanga" means a team in the army, the torture and finally the trees people put under the brand new boats in order to push them from the shore to the sea. Thos were the Falangas doing this kind of work in the island of Andros. There are also Falanga (without the s) with origin from Sicily, the initial family name was "Falangola" as well as from the town nearby Naples in Italy called Torre del Greco (tower of the Greek) something which shows the Hellenic origin of the Italian root "Falanga".