Collier County Obituary Index (Naples FL Obituary Index)

Obituary Index Project

Obituary Requests The Naples Regional Library's Reference Department processes requests for copies of obituaries and death notices from our microfilm collection of Naples' area newspapers. These microfilms cover the years of 1927-36, and 1947-present (some years are partial). For years not covered by these dates, we will be unable to provide an obituary/death notice. For obituary requests, the following apply:

• If the death occurred during the years 1927 through 2005 (barring the years for which no microfilm is available), a search may be performed with the electronic Obituary Index. The person requesting the obituary must provide the reference staff with the subject's name.
• If the death occurred in 2006, we must have the subject's name and date of death. If the exact or approximate date of death is known, please include that information. If the exact date is not known, you may call the Collier County Health Department, Vital Statistics at (239) 774-8205, to get the subject's exact date of death. The Reference staff will search the microfilm for an obituary beginning on the date of death and for the two weeks following that date.

Requests for obituaries may be made:

• in writing to the Reference Department, CCPL, 650 Central Ave., Naples, FL, 34102;
• or, by e-mail to obituaries@collier-lib.org.

When making an obituary request, you must include the subject's full name (if the subject is female, please include her first name, i.e. Mrs. Jane Doe, not Mrs. John Doe). Also, please include your name, a contact phone number, and your mailing address. Please allow one week's searching time per subject.

Obituary requests are researched free of charge, and one hard copy of the obituary will be made for you free of charge. However, in order to send a hard copy of the obituary to you via postal mail, we ask that you provide us with a self-addressed, stamped envelope, mailed to the Reference Department address above.

Obituary Index Project and Volunteers Members of the Genealogical Society of Collier County sparked the idea for a Naples Daily News Obituary Index. The project is entirely staffed by volunteers from the Society, and these same volunteers perform the actual indexing. Thanks to the volunteers' hard work, the Index database lists 55,000 entries.

While the volunteers are not necessarily experienced indexers, they have taken precautions to make the index as accurate as possible. Occasionally, a page or an entire issue is found out of order on the microfilm reels. These instances may require some extra research by patrons.

Obituary In dex volunteers, both past and present, include: Bob Holbrook (Project Coordinator), Bill Bergen, Michele Bender, Barbara Bou-Sliman, Ann Chesney, Pat Collins, Frank Cullen, Helen Eckhardt, Mary Grimsley, Nelson Kennerson, Sandy Kennerson, Cherry Key, Arlene Mauer, Mary Rankin, Joyce Reed, Kay Sapienza, Ellen Smith, and Mary Stewart. Many thanks to all of these wonderful volunteers for their hard work and persistence!

Naples Daily News Obituary Index The current version of this index contains listings extracted from the microfilmed issues of:

• Collier County News (a weekly published every Thursday), for the dates July 28, 1927-1936, and November 7, 1947-1966;
• Naples Collier County Daily News (published five days each week, with Monday and Saturday excluded), for the dates January 1, 1967-December 31, 1976.
• And, Naples Daily News (1977 through 2005).

The index will be updated to include additional listings on a regular basis. The index includes:

• obituaries;
• local deaths;
• "In Memory" entries;
• news items.

Since the intention was to indicate death notices, subsequent news items that deal with murder investigations or trials have not been included. If a person's death fell into these categories, it is advisable to check subsequent issues. Some may be as much as a year later.

A female's maiden name is enclosed within parentheses. A question mark following the maiden name indicates that the source was from the surname of a mother, or brother, and may or may not be correct. A question mark following the date of death indicates a discrepancy between issues. If unable to determine the correct date, the date from the first issue is used. Quotation marks are used to indicate nicknames.

The microfilm reels used in this project, currently numbering over 800, are housed in the Naples Regional Library, 650 Central Ave., Naples, FL. Microform reader/printers available for use. Copies are 25 cents each.

Connect to the NDN Obituary Index database entries updated to 2004