I may be confused about traditional sounding dulcimers
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Sounds like lots of fun Robin. I hope you inspire some folks to make local music! 
There were many wonderful home musicians, and musical families, in the Appalachias before the time of radio. Regular people sang while they worked, they sang at the end of the day to unwind, they sang during worship, and in play. Jean was considered unique for sure when she 'burst upon the folk scene' in NYC in the 1940s! However, there were many others in her time and place who were formidable musicians, particularly traditional singers. Her own sister Edna came a few years before Jean and was a great singer/dulcimer-accompanist in her own right. These ballad singers were much respected in their communities. As Jean said, it was the songs that led the way among the music she grew up with- she considered herself first and foremost a singer, not a dulcimer player. Jean also played guitar, banjo, and recorder and I don't know what else.. likely some piano because she did some school teaching as well.
Jean described how she was disappointed to later discover that she did not 'invent' her method of singing the melody while playing the harmony... she came to realize it was something other creative music makers did as well. As a young person she thought she had invented the method for the first time... because she invented it for herself to solve the problem of not hearing the dulcimer when she played and sang the same notes in unison. Don't we all 'invent' things and marvel at our own genius, only to discover others invented the same thing long ago? 
I strongly believe that some of the more creative music makers within any broader population, no matter what their education or background, will experiment with playing, instrument construction, tunings, songs, strumming patterns, etc. After all, that's how the 6.5 fret came into favor. Yes for sure musicians can settle into a favored way of doing things, but just because people described them as doing things one way, I always allow that they tried out a few variations at some point...even if it's as minor as trying a different material for a pick. I know I do such experimenting all the time! When i stumble into a tune on the banjo where the notes are not easily accessible.. the first thing I do is fool around with the tuning to make it more playable.
Despite the scarcity of documented writings and recordings of very early dulcimer, I maintain my conviction that inquiring-minded musicians of any time and place will twist pegs and have their own 'eureka! moments'. 
Thus, you'll never see me saying that people didn't do this or didn't do that. I may say a tuning was 'the most common' (and ionian certainly was the most common, likely followed by unison such as used in Galax...one can play 90% of American folk repertoire in them), but I never will say something was 'not done' or never done'. :)
I have two epinettes des Vosges. Their fretting patterns and stringing are almost identical. Yet I keep one in major ionian and one in aeolian or dorian mode to play the simple minor folk tunes I love. I keep a Hummel in major tuning to play cheerful dance tunes, and I am having a bowed langspil made now that I'll be playing probably only in minor tuning. Interestingly, the oldest surviving Icelandic langspils in museums had variations in fretting patterns, indicating variations in tunings. And some are pure diatonic as we know it, and others are chromatically fretted. They were strummed, plucked, and bowed. According to what I've read, there is no documented 'original' traditional tuning that survived in descriptions, so people during a later langspil revival simply adopted the tunings that worked for them. Those revival tunings are now generally accepted as 'standard', but we don't really know how players may have tuned the earliest langpils.
I know there are many, many folks who only play major tunes, or who play only in one tuning. But i can't imagine not playing the soulful minor tunes of Jean's time! Ah, but I digress...(and blab...)
In any case, here's to our each having enough Eureka moments in our playing journey to keep us inspired!
updated by @strumelia: 02/15/18 12:41:36PM
Strumelia - I think it is good we can have these debates. And I am more than prepared to shift my position as new information comes my way, because that's how we learn! Jean Ritchie was sooooo unique, in my opinion, in the way she used the instrument with her voice to play and sing the ballads from her cultural reference. But we can go into that another time!!!! 
Bocs Can Idris - flyer.pdf - 318KB
