Thanks to David, Ken, Michael and Oren, I have 

 a) learnt some XSL I should have known anyway
 b) got an answer ("from-preceding-siblings(*[1])" works in XT)
 c) cleared up another problem I was having

All in all, a pleasurable experience. Thanks again.

Sebastian

PS the answer in my case is a brother called David in Australia whom I 
have not seen since 1987. Not sure what that proves :-}



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