Maiden names spark interest

My mother's maiden name and that of my wife were the same - Appleby. Since I had never met anyone with that name other than my grandfather and my wife had never met anyone with that name other than her father and his sister we thought it possible that we might be related somewhere in the past.
I started out looking for that common ancestor in 1985 and am still looking. Early in the process we became connected with a seasoned genealogist in Sunderland, Co. Durham who had researched the Appleby name and was a cousin to my wife. His research led me to connections in Norway, New Zealand and the United States but always through the female line. Later I joined the Appleby One Name Society and through that the Appleby DNA Project. A person in the United States who was a distant cousin of my wife had his DNA tested and then in 2014 a woman in Marseille, France contacted the DNA Project. The coordinator asked me if I could place her in either my line or that of my wife and I was able to place her, through her father, into my line. He generaously offered to take the DNA test (he was 93) and the results showed that my mother's Appleby lineage did closely match that of my wife...but not until one gets back about 10-12 generations. Regrettably I have still not been able to find that elusive common ancestor as my Appleby line hits a brick wall in Kelloe, Durham in the late 18th century. I recently had my DNA tested but so far haven't had any breakthrough although I'm following Peter's tips.
Joe Forsyth

 

I do check the many different spellings Peter - sometimes it seems like people made up different ways to spell the name just for fun! Haven't found any ancestors from Somerset yet.