Steve, I wasn't criticizing academics - merely emphasizing how hard it is to find comprehensive knowledge of the subject of Child ballads.

When I started college back in the Neolithic, it seemed as though the study of English-language folklore and folksong was becoming an notable field in the liberal arts.

Since then, academic interest appears to have declined sharply, though obviously it hasn't disappeared entirely, at least in the U.S.   (The songs and lore of other cultures is much more actively studied, as always, but under the heading of anthropology.)

Have you noticed how few people, academics included, actually post to the Ballad Forum List? Undoubtedly there are many more lurkers, and some of the leading experts are probably too busy to post, but the fact seems to be that ballad knowledge generally is surprisingly rare.