I meandered around the internet this evening. (‘Surfing’ would suggest more vigor and focus than was involved!) Out of the blue, I started with the Hatfield and McCoy families and their three decades of vicious feuding. The feud (in Kentucky and West Virginia) was between a large family of Irish origin and another large family of English origin. Unhappy with gory details of the feud, I went on instead to read about Pawpaw trees, which were mentioned in the article. My mother used to recite a funny story she learned as a kid about ‘Aunt Peggy and Uncle Peter’ and a pawpaw patch, but I couldn’t locate it online, and I wonder if the story disappeared with her passing away in 2008. In looking for the story I discovered, though, a wonderful link to an index of folk songs. I listened to a couple of the songs, and so learned about Lord Franklin’s last attempt to find a Northwest Passage, and about sailors lost at sea on a whaling journey.

Here’s the link to a page on Stephen Griffith’s site, featuring a song about the racehorse ‘Stewball’: http://www.stephengriffith.com/folksongindex/stewball/