Every war memorial is a puzzle with a hundred answers. Walk past the one at the end of your high street and you see a column of initials and surnames; start pulling at one thread and you find a family, a street, a trade, a photograph in a newspaper, and often a story nobody living has ever heard. Whether you are researching for a local history group, a school project, or simple curiosity, the records are far more accessible than most people expect. The trick is to work outwards from the memorial, one name at a time.

Begin with the memorial itself

Before you open a single database, record exactly what is carved. Photograph every face of the memorial in good light, both straight on and at an angle, and transcribe the names precisely as they appear — including the spelling mistakes and the worn letters. Copy down the regiment, rank and date of death wherever they are given, because those details will save you hours later.

Then look at the memorial's own history. Was it unveiled in 1921, moved when the road was widened, or re-lettered when a second dedication was added after 1945? Compare it with other plaques in the town. Names are frequently split across a church tablet, a chapel roll of honour, a school board and a works memorial, and a man missing from one may sit quite happily on another.

Use census records to put a family around the name

Census returns are where an initial becomes a person. Returns for England, Wales and Scotland from 1841 to 1921 are available, and the 1921 census is especially useful for First World War research because it shows households just three years after the Armistice. Search the surname combined with the town, then confirm with the street address once you have it from the memorial's supporting documents or a newspaper.

Work backwards from the death. A man killed in 1917 aged twenty-four should appear in 1911 with an occupation — errand boy, pit pony driver, clerk — and in 1901 as a schoolchild among brothers and sisters. Note the parents' trades, the number of rooms in the house, and who was still at home in 1921. A widowed mother, a father listed as out of work, a younger brother who never appears again: these are the details that turn a name into a life. Bear in mind that ages in 1841 were rounded for adults, and that birthplaces are often given as nothing more than a county.

Let the newspapers do the storytelling

Local papers are the richest source of all, and the most overlooked. Digitised collections and the microfilm readers at your county record office or local studies library will let you search by surname and by street name. Try phrases such as killed in action, died of wounds, our boys and roll of honour alongside the name.

Weekly papers often ran a short biography and a photograph within weeks of a death, then returned to the subject years later when the memorial was unveiled, printing the order of service and the names of the subscribers. Inquest reports, letters from the front, and notices placed by grateful employers can all survive in print when nothing else does. Search the 1920s and 1930s as well as the war years themselves.

Fill the gaps with parish registers and burial records

Baptism registers confirm a birth date and both parents' names, which is invaluable when a census entry is ambiguous. Burial registers give a date and sometimes a poignant note — killed in action, or buried in France — recorded by a vicar who knew the family. Remember that Nonconformist and Roman Catholic registers were kept differently and may sit with a different archive, so check the chapel as well as the parish church.

War graves records complete the picture, giving the cemetery or memorial where the man is commemorated and, often, the next of kin's address as supplied by the family at the time. That address is a gift: it usually confirms which of several identically named men you are looking at.

Check, cross-check and watch for traps

• Common surnames in a small town mean several candidates. Never accept a match on name alone.
• Some men served under an alias, often a stepfather's surname or a chosen name after a family rift.
• Not everyone is commemorated. Men who died after discharge, from wounds or illness, may have no official grave record and no place on the memorial.
• Carvers made mistakes. Dates, regiments and initials are sometimes wrong, and a name may appear twice on the same panel.
• Families moved. A man on your memorial may have been born three counties away if his parents followed work.

Share what you find so it lasts

Write up one short paragraph per name: full name, family, address, service, date of death, and one human detail. Deposit a printed copy with the local studies library, the parish clerk and the church, and offer it to your local history society. If your village holds a remembrance service, consider reading a name aloud with a single sentence about the person behind it. That is the real point of the research — not a tidy database, but a community that knows who it is remembering.