I have just spent, what might have been a miserable and cold Easter break, absolutely absorbed in the Ballad and Broadside section of the Bodleian Library in Oxford(UK), which now has it's database on the Internet.

Once I had mastered the search engine,I was browsing through broadsheets printed at least 150 - 200years ago. Many are still recognisable as songs we sing today. Others amazingly have survived almost (apart from the odd word ) entirely intact.

I can recommend it to anyone interested it tracing origin of songs and ballads

BODLEIAN BROADSHEETS