In our family we have been searching through old boxes and different
paintings. Now the story goes, when my grandfather came to America in
1900, his family (from Milan Italy) gave him 2 small paintings to sell
in case he needed money. He didn't need to sell them but kept them all
this time. A few years ago, my mother had them framed and she told me
they were painted by Tiziano ( oh yeah I thought) but now that I have
retired, I'm looking at these paintings very carefully. They are about
9" tall and 6" wide. They are painted on copper, the subjects are the
Madonna with a Halo and the other is a maiden, breasts exposed, dark,
tree scenery in the background. Little chips of paint are all over and
the copper can be seen. I think my grandfather may have scraped away
the paint on the lower right of one and wrote or carved Tiziano. I
have looked at several paintings of Titian and there are similarities,
where should I go to find out, I did take some pictures. The paintings
are now in a safe just in case. Thanks for your help.

I suspect that you have copper engraving plates of Titian's paintings.
The sizes would be quite common.
They are unlikely to be by Titian himself. They might be 19th century
- a lot of engravings  and printers' blocks date from this time. Did
you have any printers or engravers in the family?

Here's a link to an encyclopedia entry on titian which notes, 
'It is said that titian himself engraved on copper and on wood but
this may be be questioned'.
"TITIAN." LoveToKnow 1911 Online Encyclopedia. © 2003, 2004 LoveToKnow.
http://100.1911encyclopedia.org/T/TI/TITIAN.htm

Could they be later paintings on such engravings?  Any evidence of
engraving where the paint has chipped?  Is there a source with all
titian's works for comparison?
It seems unlikely that a family owning original Titians would not have
had other financial means for a son who was emigrating.

I really don't understand the engraving part of your comments but I
agree why would the family give my grandfather these valuable ?
paintings when they didn't have a lot themselves unless he got them in
another way. And is there a way that I can post the paintings or would
that not be the right thing to do?

Engraving is a method to print pictures (etc.).  The design is cut
into the surface of a polished metal plate (often copper).  INk is
applied and then wiped from the surface, just leaving that caught in
the engraved grooves, which is then transferred to the paper in the
printing press.  The plates get worn with use and  eventually can no
longer be used for printing, but they are then still a work of art in
themselves  - expecially if the artist was good.  Many well-known
paintings were copied by engravers to produce prints of the original
paintings, hence the likelihood that these plates could be such copies
of better-known paintings, perhaps Titian's.  An artist might have
then used the engraving as the basis for his painting the scene.
Yes, it would be interesting if you could post the paintings, nothing
wrong with that, but I cannot tell you how to.

To myoarin Thanks that makes sense to me about engraving plates, now I
need to maybe see if I can find  2 paintings that look like these.

My pleasure.  :)
If you search with    Tizian OR tiziano oeuvre OR works
you can see a lot of his paintings, educational if not helpful.

It could be  - if the plates are engravings -  that the engraver was
clever enough to have made the plates as mirror images so that the
prints would correct.

But we are still speculating on two points:  that the copper plates
are engravings; and that they are copies of Titian's works, so don't
get to hopeful yet.  I hope that with a magnifying glass you may be
able to settle the first point.

Hey, somebody, tell Bobbie how to post photos or scans of the pictures.
Please.

Cheers

Bobbie, please post photos here:
http://www.photobucket.com/