Dear Dianavan:
Lovely story! I am mystified at the persistance of the child kidnap myth... it persists today still directed at Roma and Travellers even though there is not a single recorded case of a child kidnapped by "Gypsies" while governments all over the world including the US constantly threaten and do sometimes take children away from the nomadic peoples of their countries... go figure! As to their place in keeping alive the folk tradition, boy are you ever right! Where would Irish piping be today without the teaching of John Keenan, Paddy Keenan's late lamented father.
Cheers
Larry