One of the questions i have often been asked is 'How do you research a town memorial'? In this thread i am hoping that anyone who wishes to research their town memorial will be able to follow me in a step by step journey. Whether you are planning to publish your research or not i hope that this will help you from the start to the finish. What you must realise when your doing this, is that your not going to have a million seller book on your hands. You maybe lucky enough to sell a couple of hundred copies. We will look later when we come to the publishing of your book where the likely places are that you will be able to sell your research. First Step The first thing you have to do is decide which town memorial you wish to research. This may sound daft but if you have the same amount of villages and towns around you that i have you have to make sure its the one you really want to do. Next take a trip to the local library and find out if the memorial you want to do has not been done by someone else. There is really no point in going over something that has been done already. If someone else has done it then its probably best to look at researching another memorial. Lets say you find yourself a memorial which hasn't been researched. The next thing to do is to arm yourself with a notebook, pen/pencil, and a camera. I prefer a digital camera but you can use a 35mm film camera though you will have to wait for the photographs. Take photos of the memorial from every angle, one of these will probably become your cover page. Next take photographs of all the panels, making sure that you overlap each panel so that you don't miss any names that are etched on the memorial. The next stage is to write down in your notebook all the names on the memorial, panel by panel. Ensure that you add any additional information that the memorial may have alongside each name, such as regiment, etc. Depending on the amount of names on the memorial this may take sometime to do so make sure you don't go there to late in the day when it may get dark halfway through writing them down. Once you have got all the photographs you need and you have written all the names and information down its time to head home and download your photos onto your computer, [I'm going to assume you are using a digital camera]. Next thing to do is to open a folder for WW1 and another for WW2 and within these folders you will need to open a folder for each and everyone of the names you have on your memorial. Take a copy of the memorial panel which holds the name on your new folder. This will give you the basis of your research. In the next installment we will look at what information we can get from the internet and how to track all your casualties down. Sniper
Part 2 You should now have a list of names in your notebook and a folder on your computer. Within that folder your should have two folders, one for each world war. Within each of of those folders you should have a folder for each casualty in your notebook and in each of those folders you should have a 'Word' document with a photograph of the casualties name on the memorial that you are researching. The next step is where you become the detective and start doing your research. The best place to start is the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. Here we can track down the casualties full name, the service they were in, any regimental number, their next of kin and where they were buried. The website address for searching for casualties is http://www.cwgc.org/debt_of_honour.asp?menuid=14
