During the Venetian domination, the Kasimatis family emigrated from Crete to Kythera early in the fourteenth century and developed into one of the largest and most important families on the island. The Kasimatis are said to have originated in Constantinople and to have emigrated from there to Crete. Venetian administration offered various privileges to certain Cretan noblemen with the aim of encouraging then to settle on Kythera and organise the social structure on the Venetian model.
The first of the Kasimatis to arrive and settle on Kythera was Leon Kassimatis in 1316, forefather of many of the Kasimatis families in Kythera. Leon was appointed overseer, his family obtained many privileges from the Duke of Crete and bought three sixteenths of Kythera.
There are a considerable number of Kytherians in Australia mainly in Queensland and New South Wales.