This thread may be played out on its original subject, but I want to add that, whether a ballad contains historically accurate information or not, it usually gives the student insight into the mind of its author. And that allows us to touch the past in a unique way.

For example, in The Bonnie Fisher Lass the narrator says, "Her handsome leg and ankle, they so delighted me." It's amusing to contemplate how that fellow, so taken by that rarely exposed female extremity, would react to your average Baywatch episode. Probably have a stroke.

So, apart from historical fact (the discovering of which is half the fun of traditional music, I think), the feel for life in the past that we get from old songs is to me one of the most illuminating aspects of traditional music.

BTW, I live near Springfield and Wilbraham, MA. There are still rattlers in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains to the west of there.