Collier County Genealogy

Uncle Otis Kirkland 1949

Now that's a fish!! My uncle Otis and wife 1949 Naples Pier

For all my Kirkland kin. Great reading.

https://www.coastalbreezenews.com/news/community/collier_county_s_centennial_celebration/teacher-s-diary/article_e9cbb110-6326-11ee-a37a-63081ef2bbf1.html?fbclid=IwAR3Q_UYTQkQxXDkRNycaXJRMO0j9Xaq7a2kQ8VF35UuAEVXFcW3OYkbCxB4

Teacher’s Diary: Immersive Look into Marco, Little Marco, and Henderson Creek from 1898-1899

Anyone know who this is? Might be an Aldacosta on the right. Possibly at Molly Hamilton's place. Courtesy of Chill Williams via Chester Keene.

Feel free to tag your relatives....

in 1968, construction of the Marco River Bridge (now the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge) began. The finished bridge would cost $1.5 million and span 1,595 feet.

📸: "The Marco Islander," Spring 1969 issue.

During Marco Island's pioneer era, Captain W.D. Collier's properties at the village of Marco were a popular gathering place for residents and visitors alike.

As A.W. Dimock wrote in The Book of the Tarpon (1911), "Everybody who goes down the coast stops there [Collier's]. The only way to avoid a long detour around the Cape Romano Shoals is to go through Collier's Bay to C**n Key, and one cannot pass through Collier's Bay without calling at the store."

📸 Seven men, including Dr. Charles Louis Olds (left), and a dog outside Collier's store (c. 1910s). Courtesy of Collier County Museums.

Aileen Walker Weeks, like her mother, Ella Webb Walker, assisted many Marco Island women on their journey to motherhood in the pioneer era.

Five years after marrying commercial fisherman Dave Weeks in 1905, Aileen moved with her husband and two small children to Marco Island and became a practicing midwife for the village of Marco. She not only assisted mothers in delivering their babies, but also stayed with her patients for ten days after, doing household chores, watching and caring for younger children, and helping with whatever else was needed.

📸: Aileen Walker Weeks (center) with five of her children: Virgie, Ivan, Luther, David, and Ethel. Gift of Annette Dickerson Tindol, Aileen's granddaughter and one of the many babies she delivered on Marco Island.