JC >>>>THat claim seems to have shrunk to those songs collected in the late 19th?early twentieth century songs<<<<

Nothing has 'shrunk'. My stance has always been on that corpus on numerous threads and in my published work.

JC >>>>Even so - appearance in print is in no way prooof that that version is the first<<<<                                                                     You are here referring to MY OPINION which is at least as equally valid as yours.

JC >>>>(and at one angry stage) 100% claim<<<< Have you got the thread, the date and time on that one?

JC >>>>Child changing his mind about broadsides<<<<

Any comment I made on Child's attitude to broadsides was based on his multiple use of them; many of the ballads he chose to include are only extant as broadsides and many others have their earliest versions on broadsides.