Hi again Firstly, my thanks to Adrian, Elaine and Diana for their helpful and speedy responses.. Adrian, I'm not even sure how to go about looking for the staff records as I'm not exactly sure what to look for nor in what part of the Brunner Mond records to look, hence my original question in the hope that someone more knowledgeable could point me in the right direction. Elaine and Diana...I'll email you both off list with the details I have. Any help would be most welcome. Thanks again. Michelle

<<snipped>> Adrian, I'm not even sure how to go about looking for the staff records as I'm not exactly sure what to look for nor in what part of the Brunner Mond records to look, hence my original question in the hope that someone more knowledgeable could point me in the right direction. <<snipped>> Yes, I sympathize... company records are seldom structured for the benefit of genealogists! For what it's worth, I've just looked at A2A http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/advanced-search.aspx?tab=1 and searched for the phrase "Brunner Mond" with one or more of the words "staff" and "employee". That gives three different places holding BM records but only Chester RO looks particularly promising. The records DIC/BM 1 to DIC/BM 20 seem to comprise the bulk of the interesting staff and they include DIC/BM 8 Wages books, accident books and other papers relating to employees and working conditions While that includes Wages Books for Winnington works, these seem to be dated 1875-1882. DIC/BM 8/2 covers Pay sheets (Winnington works). "Recording daily attendance, total shifts days or hours worked per week, rates of pay, deductions and net amounts paid. Also including details of holiday pay from May 1884." These go from 1883 up to 1888 then there's one extra sequence 1904-1907, which might be of interest. On the other hand, I suspect these are unlikely to contain diagnostic details such as date of birth. One of the more interesting items is Register of absentees (Winnington works?), DIC/BM 8/5, 1902-1916, "Including details of disciplinary procedures taken against employees 1902-10 and lists of women on day (bag room), and shift (mills), work 1916." Not sure how useful that lot would be to anyone without extensive access to Chester, but at least it gives a flavour of what's there. And nothing's standing out as the obvious thing to ask someone to look at... Adrian