locating family gravestones

[dan1]

I would like to locate my great grandparent's gravestones whilst visting sicily. I assume they are buried in giarre, riposto or mascali. can anyone advise on where to start with this as I assume there would be quite a number of cemeteries in these areas? thanks.

[johnnyonthespot]

I would like to locate my great grandparent's gravestones whilst visting sicily. I assume they are buried in giarre, riposto or mascali. can anyone advise on where to start with this as I assume there would be quite a number of cemeteries in these areas? thanks.

I think you may want to read this thread (beginning with the 7th message) for an explanation as to why you may not find exactly what you are looking for...

[PeterTimber]

Just the opposite. In most small towns the cemetery is the highest partof the town walled and ringed with cypress trees. Bodies are buried either inthe walls or beneath earth but after 20 years are removed and the remains are deposited into a comunal pit and the whole process starts over again. Land is scarce in Italy and this is the best accomodation for the families of the deceased. Some cemeteries have permanent gravesites but are not pervasiuve thruout Italy. =Peter=

[TomG]

That was probably the biggest disappointment of our trip to Italy. We were hoping to find my husband's great grandparents' graves and to find birth/death dates etc. All of the tombstones were fairly recent, although the crypts did have older burials.

[sal4]

In Italy from the 1900-1950's were only the wealthy buried in mausoleums? Sal4