Lee Rothrock asks how this might be done, given that the extant music
rolls of popular tunes from years ago seem far more embellished than
the generally available sheet music.

I think that part of the answer lies in "notation vs. performance."
On his published sheet music of his own ragtime compositions, Tom Brier
sometimes adds the suggestion, "Do not play as written. I never do."

If you compare various ragtime scores against Tom's performances (Irene
Giblin's "Chicken Chowder" comes to mind) you find extra notes, unusual
emphasis, extreme rubato and other devices that mark the performance as
"Tom Brier's".

One needs to be able to improvise while sight-reading.  It's a tall
order.  Tom can do it.  I can improvise only, and that just barely.
Others, skilled at reading but envious of my improvisation, report
bring held a prisoner of "the damned dots."

An exceptionally accurate transcription of a roll might well have
incredibly difficult notation.  How does one sight-read staves stuffed
with grace notes, trills ad lib, triple-dotting, notes and rests
rendered to the hemi-demi-semiquaver, and so forth?

Peter Neilson