"The ballads you mention, Brian, should be compared with published versions from the 18th century and the early 19th. Not all of those who emigrated were poor or illiterate. Some of us still have this idea in our heads that it was only the unsophisticated who carried these ballads. That is far from the truth."

I realise that - see my comment above regarding Senator Hilliard Smith. However, having read David Hackett Fisher, the impression I have is that the majority of the migrants to the Appalachian backcountry were indeed poor and unsophisiticated.

"3 possibilities other than the usual.
Some emigrants had learnt them from published sources before they emigrated.
Some took the published materials with them.
Some had them posted over after they had settled."

The first is certainly a good possibility - that's why I was asking whether we have any early broadside evidence of those ballads that I mentioned. Point 2 is also possible, though Sharp asked his singers whether they had broadsides and didn't find a single one. Point 3 seems unlikely to have been a significant factor given what we know about the status of most of the migrants.

Yes, of course you can compare the Appalachian ballads with the usual late 18th / early 19th C Scots suspects in Child. My point was that all of those postdated the Appalachian migration, so you're not looking at the raw material. The fact that the mountain people had that large ballad repertoire projects those ballads back into early 18th C Britain. I was just wondering whether there was any direct evidence that I didn't know about. I take it that's a 'no', then?