I would be happy to transfer management of memorials to family members.

I'm an American who has lived in Italy for decades. Most of the cemeteries that I document are in the Emilia-Romagna and Lombardy regions of Italy.

If you've reached my bio because I have sent you (a potentially annoying amount of ) edit suggestions, please do not take them personally. I really value Find A Grave and I hope that by offering suggesting when I see errors, we can work together to make it as accurate as possible. I very much appreciate it when my own typos or mistakes are corrected.

A word about Italian cemeteries: Italy isn't a big country, and real estate is limited, including space in cemeteries. As a result, burials are rarely a person's final resting place. Burial, whether in the ground or in a cemetery 'loculo' (a niche in a cemetery wall) are conceded for a determinant number of years. After that period expires family members may renew what is essentially a lease of the space. If they chose not to, or if no relative is located, the remains are moved. If the body has not adequately decomposed it will be moved to a ground burial (Italian corpses are not embalmed, and coffins are not positioned in 'vaults') so that decomposition can be completed. This is generally for a period of about 5 years, after which the remains will be exhumed and any remaining bones will either be placed in a small niche in the wall, cremated, or placed in a communal bone repository ('ossarium.') As a result, it can be difficult to find graves that go back centuries. Unless a person was famous or very wealthy, or have a grave marker with particular artistic or historical significance, it's uncommon to find graves in standard town cemeteries that date back to much earlier than about 1900 (1800 in larger cemeteries), which is part of what drives me to document graves. I hate to think of graves, and the people they hold, being lost to history.

With regards to names, Italian women don't traditionally take their husband's name, but I have generally listed the maiden name AND married surnames of women if their tombstone references a husband. For example, if a woman is buried with her husband and the tombstone explicitly says 'husband and wife' ('coniugi') or if it says 'in + husband's surname' (this means she predeceased her husband) or 'ved. + husband's surname' (which means he predeceased her.) I have chosen this approach to make it easier for people to make the connection between a woman and her children (who have their father's surname) and for people doing genealogical research. As a general rule I do not list people as being related to one another unless the relationship is explicitly mentioned on the gravestone, or if I have firsthand knowledge of such a relationship.

In a lot of the photos I've taken there is a (usually white) card visible on the tomb: this is generally a notice from the cemetery office informing relatives that the tomb's lease has expired or is due to expire. I am drawn to photograph these tombs specifically due to the imminent risk that they will be exhumed and lost forever.