I appreciate the responses here, w/thanks.

I also asked this question of Stefan Grossman, and here is his response.

John Renbourn and I have also both been fascinated with this question and we have spent hours upon hours discussing and researching the origins of fingerstyle guitar.

John in fact did his college thesis at Dartmouth on a subject dealing with tis issue - Parlour Guitar Music.

There are the obvious connections to African traditional string instruments which are also played with the fingers. But the immediate direct connection betrween the folk and blues artists at the turn of the century seems to land in Boston in the 1840s!!!!! There Henry Voorall (I hope I have spelled this correctly) was writing pseudo-classical guitar instrumentals for fingerstyle guitar. These were aimed at middle-class white women to play in their parlours - thus the named Parlour Guitar Music. Martin Guitars from this period are called Parlour Guitars.

Playing this music is not the most satisfactory experience. It is somewhat kitsch BUT certain tunes like SPANISH FANDANGO and VESTAPOL ( the former played in an Open G tuning and the latter in Open D) somehow found their way into the hands of black guitar players. They changed the rhythmn and swing somewhat but still the roots are clearly seen from the 1840s.

The question then almost becomes embarrassing. Could it be that the fingerstyle blues tradition that we love so much actually have derived from this source!! Certainly isn't romantic though the evidence seems to point in that direction.

One of the missing links is recordings. So much was being recorded at the turn of the century until the late 1930s but nowhere can we find examples of parlour guitar recordings.

In the Black tradition Elizabeth Cotten, Miss. John Hurt, Furry Lewis and others all played versions of Vestapol and Spanish Fandango. Bluesmen referred to the open D tuning as Vestapol and open G as Sebastapol or Spanish. Many White musicians from the 1920s also played these tunes and in their tunings. Very suspicious indeed. Certainly leaves a lot to the imagination.

Various Black musicians from the 1920s seem to have greatly influenced others in the field of fingerstyle ragtime blues. Blind Blake, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Willie Walker, Rev. Gary Davis and Lonnie Johnson are all mentioned by various bluesmen as being great influences (either via recordings or in person).