What draws us back to a place our ancestors left generations ago?

In this episode of Italy Answered, Lisa Morales speaks with Marco Toscano, co-founder of We Are Paesani, about migration, genealogy, and the powerful connection between family history and place.

Born and raised in Cosenza, Calabria, Marco traces the inspiration for We Are Paesani to his own family. One branch left Calabria for Argentina in the early 1900s, while another established new roots in the United States. Decades later, descendants of the Rizzo family returned to Calabria searching for the places their ancestors had left behind—an encounter that helped inspire Marco and his brother’s work reconnecting descendants of Italian emigrants with their origins.

Their free digital archive is only part of that journey. For Marco, genealogical research can lead to something more personal: walking the streets where an ancestor once lived, entering the church where they were baptized or married, hearing a familiar dialect, or visiting a family cemetery. These experiences create what he describes as a true “sense of place.”

In this conversation, we explore:

• How Marco’s own family migration stories inspired We Are Paesani

• Calabria’s long history of emigration

• Searching for Southern Italian ancestors through genealogy

• Why returning to an ancestral village can complete the research journey

• The connection between dialect, community, memory, and identity

• How churches, cemeteries, and everyday places bring family history to life

• Why Marco believes the desire to return to our roots is innate

• The parallels between historic Italian emigration and young Italians leaving today

• Why interest in family history often deepens later in life

• How understanding the past can give us a stronger foundation for the future

Read the full article and follow along with the edited English transcript: [ARTICLE LINK]

We’d love to hear your feedback. Email us at [email protected]