Tom Pettitt has done a lot of research into generational passing on of ballads, in Denmark.

As for Anna Gordon remaking her ballads we are pretty certain she did this, but we don't know to what extent. Even Child refers to her remaking despite his praise for her ballads. I have been looking at the relationship between Lord Bateman and her Young Bicham/Bekie. There is a good case to be made for both of these deriving from the 18th century broadside Young Baker. Anna Gordon had 2 very different versions of this ballad, one very close to the broadside Young Baker and the other the likely source of all the Young Bekie versions found in Scotland. Of course once her ballads were published by Jamieson and Scott they were open to oral tradition and further broadside printing from that point onwards.