Edith Mary Louisa Apletree started researching the history of the Apletree family in the early twentieth century. When she died in 1948 her friend and the sole beneficiary of her estate, Gladys Collins, passed the research and documents to Reginald Apletree, a distant relation who had met Edith several times as part of his own genealogical research. Reginald continued with his investigations for nearly five more decades. During this time he had traced the family back to the 16th century and presented his findings in many volumes of bound documents, including a two-volume summary of all his work. On his death these books passed to his niece Ann Heymans(nee Apletree).