I can't believe I can finally read some information about this song. My mother used to sing it to me (33 years old now), her father (died in 1968) sang it to her, my great grand father sang it to him (died at 90 yrs old in 1981). I don't know where he learned it.

There are some differences in the song but I put that off to the fact that it's a folk song. In the song, in our family, there was no captain for a father and the angels made room for the children in heaven with Mama that night.