Although the imperial dynasty went extinct in the male line, descendants of the Palaiologan emperors survived for centuries through the lineages of various daughters. Thomas Palaiologos's oldest daughter, Helena, married Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia, with whom she had three daughters; Jelena, Milica and Jerina Brankovic. Jelena died childless, but Milica married Leonardo III Tocco, the ruler of the Despotate of Epirus. When the despotate fell to the Ottomans in 1479, Leonardo and his family escaped to Italy, where he continued to be recognized as the titular Despot of Epirus. Milica and Leonardo had a son; Carlo III Tocco, who succeeded Leonardo as the titular despot. The Tocco family, male-line descendants of Leonardo III and Milica Branković styled themselves as princes on the ground that they represented not only the senior descendants of the Byzantine imperial dynasty, but of the Serbian royal dynasty as well. Additionally, they continued to style themselves as despots of Epirus until the 17th century, when they instead began to title themselves as princes of Achaea. The change in title might be attributable to the family being the senior heirs of Thomas Palaiologos, whose wife had been the heiress of the last Prince of Achaea. The Tocco family went extinct in 1884, with the title of Prince of Achaea (among others) being inherited by Carlo Capece Galeota, their closest relative. Carlo died in 1908 and his only child, his daughter Maria Maddalena, died in 1933. The most senior descendants of the Tocco family alive today is the Italian Serra family, dukes of Cassano, owing to the 1798 marriage of Guiseppe Serra di Cassano and Teresa Tocco Cantelmo Stuart, daughter of one of the titular Tocco princes of Achaea.