Hi All, Hope you are both doing well. Everything is fine here. Molly is finishing her last semester at the U of Wisconsin Madison before graduating in the spring. Mark is finishing his second year of Grad school and is looking forward to earning some money acting in a Shakespeare Festival in Boulder Colorado this summer. My brother Bob got the following responses to a Blue Earth County bulletin board post he made on the Rolls. Thought you might be interested. Looks like even the Roll half-brothers liked to move around based on Joseph Roll's adventures in the Klondike. I am also including the response I posted. Bye for now, Dave Petrie Michael Roll Obituary Posted by BettyB <BBor1212@aol.com> on Tue, 15 Feb 2000, in response to Mankato ROLL family, posted by Bob PETRIE on Wed, 17 Feb 1999 Surname: Found the obituary of Michael Roll. It appeared in the Mankato Free Press December 9, 1895. Michael Roll died Saturday afternoon after an illness of two months, of dropsy of the heart. He was 67 years old. He came to America from Germany with his parents, who located at Lancaster, NY For the last twenty-six years he has been a resident of Mankato, and was at one time an alderman. He belonged to the German Catholic Benevolent Socieey[sic] which will have charge of the funeral at nine o'clock tomorrow morning from the German Catholic Church. Mr. Roll lived on North Broad Street, and for twenty years past he has conducted a blacksmith shop on North Front Street. He was highly respected, and his many friends regret his death. Joseph Roll obituary Posted by BettyB <BBor1212@aol.com> on Tue, 15 Feb 2000, in response to Mankato ROLL family, posted by Bob PETRIE on Wed, 17 Feb 1999 Surname: Obituary for Joseph Roll appeared in the Mankato Review in 1901. (possible brother to Michael Roll) ... Mr. Roll located in Adrian in 1878, starting the first blacksmith shop in the embryo village. He continued this business with a marked degree of success until 1891, when in company with Charles A. Sands, he established the hardware and machinery business so long conducted under the firm name of Roll & Sands. ... Mr. Roll was born at Lancaster, New York, in 1855, and at the time of his death was a little more than 46 years of age. Upon coming west he located at Mankato, where he lived several years previous to his removal to Adrian. In 1881 he was married to Miss Bertha Hein, who together with five children, viz: Mamie, Lucy, Ida, Leo and Marguerite survive him. ... Mr. Roll's fatal illness is traced in the exposure and privations incident to life in Alaska, having gone to the Klondike country in 1898 in search of the elusive golden rainbow. His trip was not wholly unprofitable as far as worldly wealth is concerned, but in the trip he lost that which is more precious than the riches of Croesus--his health. ... In the death of Joseph Roll the community has lost an estimable and enterprising citizen, and his family a doting husband and father. Although never a candidate for public office outside of village polities, he was nevertheless deeply interested and well-versed in political work, and all his life was a consistent and uncompromising Democrat. For several years he was village treasurer, and in every public movement he was a conspicuous figure..." Roll Family History Posted by David Petrie <dapwyn@aol.com> on Wed, 16 Feb 2000, in response to Joseph Roll obituary, posted by BettyB on Tue, 15 Feb 2000 Surname: Roll, Zimmerman, Hillesheim, Unger, Worley, Budde, Karnes Betty, Thanks for the response to my brother Bob's post for information on the Roll family. This Joseph Roll appears to be the half brother of my grandfather, Albert Wendell Roll. Michael Roll, whose obituary you also supplied, was the father of both. Joseph was from his first marriage to Maria Rosa (last name unknown) in 1854(?) and Albert was from his second marriage to Hedwig Zimmerman in 1864(?) in Lancaster, New York. I show that Joseph was a blacksmith and was born in Lancaster, New York but his date of birth was shown as 1857 in my information. He married Bertha in Wisconsin and they had a daughter, Louisa Roll who was born 10 Oct 1883 in Mankato, Minnesota. I have information on Michael's father and mother who are buried in Mankato as well as his brother George Roll and his descendants who remained in New York State.