Obituary Requests | Obituary Index Project | Obituary Index
Obituary Requests
The Naples Branch Library Reference Department processes requests for copies of obituaries and death notices from a microfilm collection of Naples' area newspapers, covering 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 2002 (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 during 2003 through the present, 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 Vital Statistics Department
at (941) 774-8205, to get the subject's exact date of death. Reference
staff will search the microfilm for an obituary beginning on the date of
death and for the two weeks following that date.
- For previous year and current death notices and obituaries, you may search the Naples Daily News'
own online archive at <http://naplesnews.abracat.com/c2/obits/hub/index.xml>. If a death notice/obituary was published,
you can access it electronically via this archive.
Requests for obituaries may be made:
- In writing to the Reference Department, Naples Branch Library, 650
Central Avenue, Naples, FL, 34102;
- Via 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) and
date of death. 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 contains over 45,000 entries. While the volunteers are not
experienced indexers, they have taken precautions to make the index as accurate
as possible. Occasionally, a page or an entire issue was found out of order on
the microfilms. These instances may require some extra research by patrons.
Obituary Index 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 2002).
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 550, are housed in the Naples Branch Library, 650 Central Avenue, Naples, FL. Microform reader/printers are available for use at that location, and copies are 25 cents each.
Page updated October 11, 2004
Database updated as
of: October 11, 2004