I would start with Thomas Jefferson. People are ever improving apples and avid gardeners such as Thomas Jefferson did a lot to improve fruit in their day. You may like this article

Here is a link that might be useful: History of apples

Here are a few more articles you might enjoy

http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/monticellos-south-orchard

http://www.orangepippin.com/apples/newtown-pippin

http://www.biography.com/people/johnny-appleseed-38103#synopsis

http://www.2020site.org/trees/apple.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple

http://www.orangepippin.com/

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Sat, Nov 29, 14 at 16:04

Hi,
Sounds like an interesting project. I'm sure others have more experience than me, but it does seem like some of the basic information on crosses that produced various varities is included in the national Germplasm listings.

Besides the basic information on the crosses (or sometimes just a "chance seedling" of...) they also indicate where the original was provided from so that might give you an additional direction to proceed.

The database is searchable at:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/

I suggest putting in "malus" plus the variety name since it also includes all the other fruit plants they maintain, so this will limit it just to apples.

Good luck and let us know what other sources you find useful.

Some apple varieties are more "wild" than others, or at least closer to the native varieties, before humans brought them into cultivation.

The wild apple varieties are much smaller, harder, more acidic and less sweet. Some of them could not really be described as eatable.