The song has been sung in my family for at least six generations. I learned it from my mother, who learned it from hers, and so on, and so on. The cool thing about this (well, one of the cool things) is that none of the singers in my family had ever heard a recorded version of the song until after my mother and her aunts sang it for me. We were surprised to hear a recording by Pete Seeger (circa 1962). The reaction of three generations of my family was, "where did he ever learn that one?" Fun thread.