Helen Agnes Henrietta Tayler, known as Hetty Tayler was born in London. Her brother Alexander, known as Alasdair Tayler was born 16 months later at the family summer home in Rothiemay, Banffshire, Scotland. Their parents, William James Tayler and Georgina Lucy Duff, were descended from noble multi-generational Scottish and English families, whose long aristocratic histories provided much material for the two future historians in their formative years.
Among the books under the joint authorship of Alasdair and Hetty Tayler were:
Alasdair and Hetty Tayler (1914). The Book of the Duffs. William Brown.,
Alasdair and Hetty Tayler (1933). The Ogilvies of Boyne. Aberdeen University Press.,
Alasdair and Hetty Tayler (1934). Jacobites of Aberdeenshire and Banffshire in the Rising of 1715. Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh and London. - about Charles, Lord Fraser of Muchalls, William Fraser of Inverallochy, Captain Simon Fraser and the Hon. James Fraser of Lonmay,