Alan Leng, whose maternal grandmother was an AISLABIE, maintains an offline database of all UK births, marriages and deaths for AISLABIEs.

His collection of material includes many census returns, parish records including baptisms, marriages and burials, and wills from the 1700s to date. Through other researchers new enquirers can usually be linked into an existing family tree. Make contact by e-mail here.

The surname AISLABIE (with several modern spelling variations including AISLABY, AISLEBY, ASELBY and even AISLADIE) is relatively rare. In England the name was commonest in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the Stainmore area, which lies west of Scotch Corner on the A1, between the northern edge of the Yorkshire Dales and the Durham moors. A major cluster of the name still exists in the area of Bowes and Barnard Castle.

Other AISLABIEs lived in Buckinghamshire, Nottinghamshire, Suffolk and London, and links between some of these different families clearly exist but are still to be established. AISLABIEs, like many other families, moved out to the British colonies, and there is a significant family presence in Australia and New Zealand.

Perhaps the most famous of the AISLABIEs was John AISLABIE (1671-1742), who was Secretary to the Navy (1716) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1717-1721). John was MP for Ripon and created the Studley Royal Gardens. His family acquired Fountains Abbey and Fountains Hall.