Talk:Grandfather's House

A fact from Grandfather's House appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 7 September 2005. The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the Grandfather's House mentioned in the song "Over the River and Through the Woods" is a real house on the Mystic River in Medford, Massachusetts?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2005/September.

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Grandmother versus Grandfather[edit]

There seems to be some versions of the song refering to the house as Grandmother's and some as Grandfather's. I'll try to track down some book versions of this song; hopefully I can find a more authoritative source. It's very possible that Grandmother is the correct word since the author was an abolitionist, though little known in her time. In the interim, I'll write a quick note on the article. Janet13 03:28, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I’m confused—what does the author being an abolitionist have to do with the gender of her grandparent?

Sorry... I found some reference to that online, didn't really think it through. I removed it. Added net and book sources on each version (used Amazon's "search inside the book" function, since I can't get to a library right now). Janet13 03:55, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Also, I forgot to comment my change; I fixed the image link to it pointed to the picture, which is still called Grandfather’s House.

crism 03:44, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I've always heard it as, "Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go."--150.243.119.136 04:17, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

As have I always heard it as Grandmother's house. Secondly, why is this article titled "Grandfather's House" but begins with "Grandmother's House" and then says 'some' songs refer to it as "Grandfather's House"? Shouldn't this be the opposite or the page should be moved scr0llwheel 05:41, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

If the poem was published in 1844 surely it shouldn't be that hard to track down the version that was first published, should it? Either way, the first reference should be the same as the article title and the second should be the other one. --Angr/_{tɔk tə mi} 05:53, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

It's from the 1844 Flowers for Children, volume 2. Which does not seem to be exceedingly rare but not easy to get an original copy of. I've had my library take the 1854 reprint edition out of the depository for me and I'll probably look into it by tomorrow. --Fastfission 12:33, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

And for the record, the "Grandfather's house" poem in the external link section looks a lot more reputable (even has a citation) than the other one, which looks like the later "song" version. But I haven't double-checked all of this yet. --Fastfission 15:51, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]