Brian, Jim,
I'm not suggesting they were suffering from dementia. All I'm saying is that in the majority of cases there was a significant gap between them learning the songs and them being recorded by collectors. I'm well aware of the power of childhood memories in older people being stronger than short-term memory, but those memories are often clouded by wishful thinking and they can be easily confused.

Jim, with all due respect, your own experiences seem to have been mainly among peop[le who were still actively involved with singing the songs to an audience. Unfortunately for the rest of us and for the majority of those collectors over the previous 3 centuries they were being taken down from the aged who had ceased to have an audience for some time.

However, I am interested in the book you suggest and will try to check it out. Thanks.

Having said it once I will repeat it. All of the collectors I'm sure would have dearly loved to have sat down with every singer and written dowen their life story. If they had have done this we'd have about a hundredth of the volume of songs we now have access to!