Place:Meana di Susa, Torino, Piemonte, Italy

source: Family History Library Catalog

Research Tips

Most immigrants from Meana di Susa who came to North America settled in one of the following places:

• The Bracebridge/Huntsville area of Ontario;

• Toronto, Ontario;

• The Welland/Port Colborne area of Ontario;

• The Seattle/Renton area of Washington State;

• San Francisco, California;

• New York City;

• Several towns in Western Pennsylvania; and

• Mellen, Wisconsin.

While some came through other ports such as the port of Quebec, the port of entry into North America was almost always New York. This was the case even for those headed for Canada.

There are about four hundred known entries of persons from Meana into North America prior to the mid 1920s. Emile Franco has information on several immigrants from Meana di Susa which he is willing to share with other family historians researching their Meanesi roots: emile . ottawa gmail

Beyond the civil registration information for Meana, the military registration information for the Susa region may be of assistance in tracing male ancestors.

Many of the men from Meana and the surrounding villages who settled in Huntsville Ontario became the nucleus of what became known as the Anglo Canadian Leather Company Band. Ed Terziano wrote a booklet about this band a few years ago under the title The Little Town Band that Grew. The Huntsville and Bracebridge Ontario public libraries have copies in their collection, as does the National Library of Canada in Ottawa.

Information about some of the families from the Susa Valley who settled in Mellen Wisconsin is provided in Volume 2 of the local history book A Journey Into Mellen by Joe Barabe.

Mediana: Storia Breve di Meana e dei Meanesi provides a detailed history of the village of Meana di Susa and its people. It was written by E Patria and W Odiardi several years ago in Italian. Unfortunately, copies are hard to come by unless you know someone in Meana.

La Nostalgia: Social and Cultural Traditions of Italians in Huntsville by Pat Boon provides historical information on the Italian community of Huntsville, Ontario, many of whom came from Meana. Photocopies are available from the Huntsville Public Library for a cost recovery charge.

The Italian language book Il sogno nella valigia. Storie e memorie di emigranti della valle di Susa fra '800 e '900 by Giorgio Jannon provides stories and memories (in Italian) of emigrants from the Susa Valley.

John Zucchi's book Italians in Toronto: Development of a National Identity, 1875 -1935 provides an excellent account not only of the settlement of Italians in Toronto, but of their reasons for leaving their homeland. A quote from this book that is particularly relevant to those trying to understand what drove their grandparents to leave the beauty of the Val di Susa is a follows: “A peasant in Meana or Gravere near Susa in 1910 realized sooner or later that working in a tannery in Acton or Bracebridge, Ontario or as a chef or waiter in Toronto was more remunerative than collecting chestnuts or fruit for export to France.”