"WP believed that his family had learned their songs from broadsheet ballads. "
Walter simply didn't know and said so to the tape recorder
He never saw a broadside ballad himself and there were none in his collection of papers and books
Walter's family were hoarders who seldom threw anything out, certainly nothing relating to his family's singing
He had family documents going back to the middle of the 19th century - not a broadside among them
Jim Carroll