Re: "One thing that was known was that Willafjord was played by fiddlers in Newfoundland and Cape Breton – in a similar syncopated style." This is rather misleading: fiddlers in Newfoundland and Cape Breton picked up this tune initially from recordings of Shetland fiddlers, AFAIK. I think you would have to search long and hard to find any trace of it in Atlantic Canada prior to ca 1970.