A Wave of Emigration
Starting in the late 1880s, a number of Cavallettos left the Vesignano area to seek their fortune in the Americas. Many of them headed for areas they had heard of from neighbors or relatives, so they created clusters of Cavallettos in a handful of locations, including Santa Barbara, California; Spring Valley, Illinois; and other places in North and South America.
Ellis Island
We get a snapshot of some of these emigrants in the records of these that passed through New York harbor’s Ellis Island.
There are numerous Cavalletto/Cavaletto entries at Ellis Island, most often showing them immigrating to America around the turn of the century from Salassa or Rivarolo. (Vesignano was too small to be known, so the embarkation records usually list the point of origin for most of them as the town of Salassa, two miles north, or Rivarollo, two miles south.)
Visiting The Hometown
The logs also show the return in 1920 of Giovanni Batista Cavalletto (listed as “Battista Cavallette”), his wife Caterina, and their six-year-old son George Alexander Cavalletto (listed “Giorgio Cavallette”), who had spent the previous five months in Italy, and had returned by ship via France.
| Year | Name of Passenger | Age | Residence |
| 1892 | Guiseppe Cavaletto | 57 | Salassa |
| 1892 | Pietro Cavaletto | 16 | Salassa |
| 1893 | Benedetto Cavaletto | 30 | |
| 1893 | Catterina Cavaletto | 20 | |
| 1893 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 4 | |
| 1893 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 1 | |
| 1893 | Luigia Cavaletto | 29 | |
| 1894 | Domenico Cavaletto | 23 | |
| 1894 | Ludovico Cavaletto | 49 | Solana |
| 1895 | Domenico Cavaletto | 34 | |
| 1895 | Felice Cavaletto | 18 | |
| 1895 | Francesco Cavaletto | 12 | |
| 1895 | Margherita Cavaletto | 17 | |
| 1896 | Battista Cavaletto | 1 | |
| 1896 | Marco Cavaletto | 27 | |
| 1896 | Maria Cavaletto | 7 | |
| 1896 | Tecla Cavaletto | 28 | |
| 1898 | Eugenia Cavaletto | 32 | |
| 1898 | Lodovico Cavaletto | 39 | Rivarolo |
| 1898 | Perollo Cavaletto | 7 | |
| 1900 | G. Battisto Cavaletto | 67 | Rivarolo |
| 1900 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 22 | Salassa |
| 1901 | Catterina Cavaletto | 20 | Salassa |
| 1901 | Luigi Cavaletto | 27 | Salassa |
| 1902 | Biagio Cavaletto | 20 | Salassa |
| 1902 | Michele Cavaletto | 23 | |
| 1903 | Domenico Cavaletto | 25 | Ozeona |
| 1904 | Francesca Cavaletto | 27 | Rivarolo |
| 1904 | Pietro Cavaletto | 15 | Rivanzo |
| 1905 | Carlo Cavaletto | 6 | Torino |
| 1905 | Clotilde Boggio Cavaletto | 36 | Torino |
| 1905 | Domenico Cavaletto | 25 | San Martino |
| 1905 | FRANCESCO CAVALETTO | 32 | Torino |
| 1905 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 21 | Rivauzo |
| 1905 | Guiseppina Cavaletto | 2 | Torino |
| 1906 | Felice Cavalletto | 8 | Amalfi |
| 1906 | Clara Cavaletto | 25 | Rivarolo |
| 1906 | Fca Cavaletto | 26 | Rivarolo |
| 1906 | Federico Cavaletto | 26 | Roseiauo |
| 1906 | Michele Cavaletto | 27 | Rivarolo |
| 1907 | Angelo Cavalletto | 18 | Maser |
| 1907 | Attilio Cavalletto | 26 | Maser |
| 1907 | Federico Cavalletto | 23 | Maser |
| 1907 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 21 | Torino |
| 1907 | Esniete Cavallette | 20 | Rome, Italy |
| 1910 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 16 | Salassa, Italy |
| 1911 | Cecilia Cavaletto | 16 | Spring Valley, Ilinois |
| 1911 | Eugenia Cavaletto | 39 | Spring Valley, Ilinois |
| 1911 | Francesco Cavaletto | 21 | Rivarolo, Italy |
| 1911 | Giovanni Cavaletto | 29 | Santa Barbara, CA or Rivarolo, Italy |
| 1911 | Margherita Cavaletto | 19 | Rivarolo, Italy |
| 1911 | Piacomo Cavaletto | 16 | Rivarolo, Italy |
| 1912 | Domenico Cavaletto | 31 | USA |
| 1912 | Federico Cavaletto | 28 | Kamloops, Canada |
| 1912 | Giuseppe Cavaletto | 23 | Rivarolo, Italy |
| 1912 | Maria Cavaletto | 18 | Kamloops, Canada |
| 1913 | Natale Cavalletto | 19 | Salassa, Torino |
| 1914 | Aventino Cavaletto | 16 | Rivorolo, Italy |
| 1914 | Cesarina Cavaletto | 26 | Ruardo, Italy |
| 1919 | Giusepey Cavalletto | 24 | |
| 1920 | Domenica Carl Cavaletto | 38 | Rivarolo Canavese, Torino, Italy |
| 1920 | Giocomo Cavaletto | ||
| 1920 | Battista Cavallette | 44 | Goleta, California |
| 1920 | Caterina Cavallette | 37 | Goleta, California |
| 1920 | Giorgio Cavallette | 6 | Goleta/California |
| 1921 | Carlo Cavalletto | 24 | Salasca, Torino |
| 1921 | Giuseppe Cavalletto | 22 | Salasca, Torino |
| 1921 | Antonio Cavaletto | 23 | Rivarolo, Italy |
| 1921 | Catherine Cavaletto | 38 | Brooklyn |
| 1922 | John Cavaletto | 44 | Ind. |
| 1922 | John Cavaletto | 9 | Ind. |
| 1923 | Anna Cavalletto | 1 | Turin, Italy |
| 1923 | Margherita Cavalletto | 28 | Turin, Italy |
| 1923 | Paolo Cavalletto | 28 | Turin, Italy |
(Records taken from www.ellisisland.org/search, and names link to their manifest logs.)