I believe Cecil Sharp was one of the first to extensively catalogue Appalachian folk music. He'd done the same in England (but was not the first), and was interested in how traditional English folk music had survived in communities of English descent. Olive Dame Campbell put him onto Appalachia when he met her in Boston. Arguably, his bias towards English-origin music meant that he neglected to record and preserve the full range of Appalachian folk. More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Sharp#In_America