We regularly sing Stephen Foster songs for older audiences and although we sometimes try to slip in alternate words here and there our audience never does. Many terms have changed their meanings over 150 years but it's the feel of the songs and melodies that still move us. Everyone understands the nostalgia about "home" and "loved ones" regardless of the setting of a song.
I'm reminded of my first visit to a Cornish Association meeting in Melbourne. A member told me, "Of course you know that "Camptown Races" is a Cornish song?". "Stephen Foster's Camptown Races?" says I. He said, "Of course we know that Stephen Foster wrote it - and also many other songs we sing, but our ancestors took his songs into their homes - They became our songs!"
                                           Joy