Thank you Richard. I have found some other bits of info in my googling.

for it is the refashioning and recreation of the music by the community that gives its folk character

So along the way, Rennaiasance and Romantic and popular music composers have been taking bits of "folk" melodies and lyrics and the rehashing the folk stories born of historical lifestyles and events, and refashioning them.

Does that not mean they are still folk?