What were the original Itsy Bitsy Spider lyrics?
Nobody has the true original. The earliest known printed version, from 1910, is rougher and sings of a “blooming, bloody spider”. Words close to the ones we sing today were in print by 1948.
1910: the rough version
Arthur Walbridge North printed it in Camp and Camino in Lower California, calling it “that classic, the Spider Song”, which suggests the song was already known before his book. His version used “bloody” and “blooming”, words that later versions dropped.
1913: a sparrow takes over
A version in Collier’s three years later had a sparrow in place of the spider, and was described as a “deathless Cockney lyric”. Songs passed along by ear can change a lot.
1948: nearly today’s song
Ruth Crawford Seeger printed it as “Eency Weency Spider” in American Folk Songs for Children. Western Folklore printed “The Eenzy Weenzy Spider” the same year. Neither spelling is more correct than “itsy bitsy” or “incy wincy”, which is why your family’s version is just as real as anyone else’s.