Rolinger Ancestry as I know it!

I started doing what Emily has undertaken long ago (1995) in order to at least know who my cousins were and will share what I collected at that time. Others PLEASE fill in and/or make corrections.

LOUIS & ODELIA SCHISTEL ROLINGER: (Picture was taken in 1948 at "Pa's last run" on the railroad) Will start with my grandparents - Louis E. & Odile A. Schistel Rolinger are as far back as I remember. They had 9 children and I know their names and think I have them in correct order of birth. Louis was the oldest, Margie, Doll (Elizabeth), Emma (Sister Amadeus), Clarey (Claremont), Tom (Thomas), Trona (Petrona), George and Babe (Odile). I know G&G Rolinger were from Chicago area but I always knew them living in Freeport, Illinois. Gpa was an engineer for the Illinois Central Railroad and always let Gma take the lead in any conversation. Gma was a fun loving lady with lots of beautiful wavy, white hair, baked wonderful things, had squeaky seats on her dining room chairs, collected teacups and their telephone was a crank one (party line you know) that hung on the wall in the hall. She always had a hug, a giggle and some home baked goodie for us. They lived across the street from St. Vincent's orphanage and old folks home and Gma rarely missed 6 a.m. Mass over there. Frequently one of the "old folks" would "escape" and come to visit Gma. She always treated them like a guest until the staff came to escort them back "home" (Gma had secretly called the staff for an escort). Am sure everyone who knew my G&G Rolinger will have their own memories to add. They both lived into their 90's and their last years spent at St. Vincent's right across the street from their home!

LOUIS ROLINGER (oldest child) was married to Edna. He was a professional boxer for many years and was the originator of the Rolinger restaurant in Waterloo, Iowa. They had three children: Joan, Jack & Russell. JOAN I think still lives in Iowa City, Iowa and has two children Christopher & Janae. JACK is married to Jonella and lives in Arizona. Their daughter is Carmen Carr Shudde who has a son and his name escapes me, sorry buddy! RUSSELL is married to Jean Stephenson Rolinger and lives in Waterloo, Iowa. Russ took over the Rolinger restaurant until it closed. Russ & Jean have four children. MARK is a lawyer in Waterloo, married to Lisa and last I knew had two daughters, Abigail & Allison; CAMI is married to Steve Smalley and they have Meredith, Elizabeth and Benjamin the last I knew; SUSAN is married to Bradley Hagerty and I believe lives in the Des Moines, Iowa area. Their children are Caitlyn, Hannah & Madeline; and MATTHEW is Russ & Jean's youngest. I believe he still lives & works in Waterloo area and is the handsomest young man I've met in ages!

MARGIE ROLINGER: Second child died at 3 years of age.

ELIZABETH (DOLL) ROLINGER: Third child died at 5 years of age. I think Emma told me both of these girls died around the same time.

EMMA (SISTER AMADEUS) ROLINGER: Fourth child was a Sister of Providence. Taught school for many years and retired to St. Mary of the Woods mother house in Terre Haute, Indiana, where she was in charge of the Stamp Room. The sisters would remove stamps from envelopes and sell them to make money for the order. Emma had a vast stamp collection that she "gave away" one day. I asked her why she gave it away and she said "did you ever see a U-haul behind a hearse?" She was a beautiful, tiny lady who was full of wit, wisdom and grace and I am honored to have been able to spend time with her. She passed away in 2005 and is buried at St. Mary of the Woods near her aunt, Sister St. Pierre, who was Gma Rolinger's sister. If you have a chance to visit the "Woods" do, it's a beautful place!

CLAREY (CLAREMONT) ROLINGER: Fifth Child was married to Adeline, owned a plane at 15 and was doing parachute jumps. They had sons Jim and Jack and a daughter Carla Kay Atkins. JIM lives in Oklahoma, is married to Patricia Roe Rolinger and they have Jill, Steven and Kim. I am not positive the rest is current but will do my best....JILL is married to Wes Hinkston and they have an adopted daughter Jerusha Rhodes. STEVEN was married to Jo Ann Kaufman and they had a daughter Tammy (see Tammy Ricketts below). I believe Steve lives in South Dakota and lists Ashlee Rolinger and Briann Pitts as daughters along with Tammy. KIM is married to Gary Rehl, lives in Spring, TX and has three children, Sara, Emily & Gary, Jr. TAMMY, Steve's daughter, has a son Marques Rolinger, is married to Joshua Ricketts, they have two boys - Josh & Isaiah - and live at Ft. Campbell, KY. JACK is married to Mary Shea, lives in Phoenix area and they have four children: MARK married to Terri Hancock with children KRISTEN Rolinger (Married to Chris "Honey" Self, is a fantastic photographer with 3 kids - Jaylan, Olivia & Liam); Stefanie and Jessica; DAVID is single and lives in Phoenix; TOM Rolinger is married to Julie Reid and has 2 children Tarah recently married to Chris Clark and Tanner. CARLA KAY is married to Jim Atkins and lives in Phoenix. They have two sons, Chris (dec.) and Scott who is married to Dawn, grandson J.C.

OK I'm only half done and it's pretty obvious the Rolinger's are a prolific bunch!

THOMAS (TOM) ROLINGER: Sixth child is my Godfather. He was married to Theresa and I believe they had seven children, Emily will need to fill in this part for me. I think the kids names were Theresa, Rosemary, Odile, Jack, Sister Pat, Tom, Jerry. HELP ME EMILY!

PETRONA (TRONA) ROLINGER BUTERBAUGH: Seventh child. Trona was married to Paul Buterbaugh and they had two daughters. JACKIE lives in Orangeville, IL, teaches school in Freeport and is married to Wayne Yeoman. They have Alan, Carol, Mike and Karen; MARGIE is married to Jim Kernan and I think still lives in California.

GEORGE ROLINGER: Eighth child, is my Dad and the only surviving sibling. He lives in Tucson and turned 90 last summer. Very handsome guy if I do say so, in fact all nine of the Rolinger kids were very good looking and most of the men served our country in the Navy! My Dad was married Eleanore Bordner who is deceased. I am the oldest of their kids, married to Harvey Miller, live in Cedar Rapids IA and am getting old! We have three children: BRAD lives & drives a bus in Las Vegas and is a single dad to Lani (3); COURTNEY (Corky) lives in Houston area, is a grade school principal and married to Greg Merilatt. They have Shea (15) and Cody (12); our youngest is NICKI who lives in Decorah IA, is an optician and married to Paul Lillegraven. They have McKinley (12) and Andy (11 next week). TERRY is my brother who lives in Nogales and is a Customs Agent. He is married to Gail and they have a son Tosh, daughter Crystal and a son Troy who is deceased. My youngest brother is CRAIG, lives in East Moline IL, and is married to Nancy.

ODILE (BABE) ROLINGER COBLE: Was the ninth and youngest child. She lived in Freeport, IL, was married to Bill Coble. They had a son JOHN who is married to Fanny. They have two daughters and live in Gahanna OH.

Holiday Greetings!

We sure hope each one of you had a wonderful holiday season filled with good memories and fun times with your families. Our house was very busy from Dec. 26th until Jan. 3rd with everyone home at least part of that time.

The last time all the Miller's were together at the same time was about a month before I came to live here (I am 8) and long before Lani was born (she's 19 months)! This year was wonderful! A great time with lots of noise, laughter, fun, kids and food (the crumbs on the floor were delicious!) Brad and Helana (Lani) came from Las Vegas and she fed me the best! She's allergic to lots of things plus our cold weather and my dander kind of made her face redder than normal but she sure seemed to have a good time. She runs, plays and even throws my toys for me! Everyone loves Lani for sure! The only thing she didn't like was having her pix taken when she wasn't in the mood! Most of the time she smiled big ones and said "cheese!" Corky, Greg, Shea and Cody came from Texas for a whole week. Shea has become our beautiful cheerleader with a perpetual smile for everyone and Cody is the thinker for sure... figuring everything out and how it works. Wouldn't you know we had a warm spell while they were here (warm for us, not for them) that melted most of our snow, so sledding only happened once. I think they had fun tho and Cody accomplished a couple trips down the hill on the snowboard. Nicki, Paul, McKinley and Andy arrived from Decorah. Since they are only 100 miles away we were not so shocked at how much they had grown - we see it in the making. They seemed to really enjoy spending time with their cousins! They brought their Wii that Santa had delivered to them and EVERYONE enjoyed that. In fact I hear tell that Becky thinks she needs one. We also had a birthday party for McKinley and Andy before Shea and Cody had to leave. They have birthdays very soon after Christmas (McKinley will be 10 on January 6th and Andy will be 9 on January 16th.) More food and presents!

The whole week was a wonderful time and an event that Becky & Harvey will cherish for years to come. I hear tell there were 537 pictures between all the cameras and Becky tried to pick the best of the best. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PICTURES. PLUS they had family pictures taken at a studio so you will likely be overwhelmed with our faces in the near future.

Happy New Year!

Schatzi

WHAT A GIFT!

Harvey just got a call from the oncology office and his most recent PET Scan is CLEAN! We are all tickled pink and couldn't have asked for a better Christmas gift! Our weather is predicted to be nasty/icy/snowy by morning when he was supposed to have had his appointment so they called and told him the results and said he really didn't need to reschedule the appointment for tomorrow unless he felt a real need to talk to the doctor! He's on his way down there before this storm hits to have labs drawn an they'll let us know the results next week. Those should show marked improvement from last time and he is good to go for the next three months! We sure have a lot to be thankful for this year - this was the perfect present under our tree! (by the way, our tree is not up yet, but will be by tomorrow!)

Schatzi

Growing Up!

We just got the most current school pictures from the four older grandkids and just had to show them off! Where does time go and how can they grow up so fast. 

   

    

Here's the stats: Shea will be 14 in March and is in the 8th grade; Cody is 10 and in the 5th grade (Shea & Cody are Corky & Greg's kids and live in Houston); McKinley is 9, almost 10, and in the 4th grade; Andy is 8, almost 9, and in the 3rd grade (McKinley & Andy live in Decorah with their folks Nicki & Paul); and Lani (Helana - Brad's baby) is 19 months already but since she isn't in school yet, we don't have school pictures from Las Vegas - that time will get here long before any of us are ready for it! They will all be here between Christmas and New Years so am sure there will be a LOT of picture taking and Becky will surely share them with you. The smells from the kitchen tell me Becky is busy baking Christmas goodies and heard her tell Harvey he was going to have to carry the decorations up from the basement this weekend. Snow, cold, goodies baking and decorations going up - Christmas will be here shortly!

TTFN

Schatzi

Thanksgiving

Can you believe I was invited to the Thanksgiving celebration at my other Mom's house and Becky & Harvey left me at home! Was not very nice of them for sure and it looks like they had a great time. For sure they came home full and complaining about overeating - serves them right for leaving me behind! All of us have a lot to be thankful for this year: Helen is looking forward to her 90th birthday in January, her friend Betty joined us for the day and was a most welcome addition to the group, Betsy is cancer-free again, Butch and Harvey remain so! Lots of big things to say our prayers for. We hope you all had a great holiday with family and friends. However I certainly hope you didn't leave your pets at home when they were invited!

Schatzi

Plans!

Boy is the Christmas chitter chatter going strong here! I hear tell that all the kids, grandkids, etc. will be home between Christmas and New Year's! WOW that's a biggie for us and hasn't happened in ages. Becky is busy planning a family portrait and already wondering where all will sleep and what to cook! Am sure this is going to be a great time for all of them and I can't wait to meet Lani.  Hope I don't make her allergies worse, I'd feel awful!

TTFN

Schatzi

3-Days in Chicago

I spent three very relaxing days at Camp being completely spoiled by my other Mom & Dad (they are wonderful you know). Becky, Harvey, Nicki, Paul, McKinley and Andy on the other hand were off to Chicago. Whew, they made me tired telling me all they did. Andy pretty much was the photographer on the trip and took 253 pictures in three days! Don't worry, Becky didn't post them all! 

The first day Andy got to go to the big Lego store on Michigan Ave. for the first time and the Bears store. They all went up to the observatory on the John Hancock building, had dinner in Lincoln Park, went to Briar Street Theater to see the Blue Man Group perform AND when they got back to the hotel the kids went swimming! See what I mean? I'm tired just thinking about it.

On the next day they spent almost all day at the Shedd Aquarium where both kids took a zillion pictures until they read the sign that said "NO FLASH PICTURES ALLOWED". Hmmmm.... They got back to the hotel just in time to see Iowa beat Penn State and still get to Heather & Bill's reception pretty much on time! That was another wonderful wedding event.

On the last day Andy, Paul, Nicki & Harvey went to the Bears game - a first for most of them. Other than not bringing home a winner, it was a great time for all of them. McKinley got her very first cab ride with Becky to shop at Water Tower Place where she spent her money wisely! Then they saw the pre-Broadway stage performance of Dirty Dancing. I know they didn't get home until almost midnight cuz I had to spend an extra day at camp! From the number of packages, souvenirs, smiles and pictures, I think it was a great adventure for everyone.

Becky has sorted through the pictures and posted the "best of the best". Click here to see them. We are now having snow, sleet and ice so I think winter is almost here and the adventures may end. I hope so, I love camp, but I need to sleep in my own bed sometimes.

TTFN

Schatzi