Iremember when computer genealogy was widely regarded as tantamount to supping with the devil, and social media as merely funny cat pictures and peoples’ dinners. Having participated in newsgroups in the ’90s, sharing email discussions on a myriad of topics internationally, including family history, I slid seamlessly into Facebook and Twitter, as I still like to call it. Frowned upon by those who don’t trust Zuckerburg, and now Musk, I like social media. Used sensibly and selectively, it’s wonderful for family historians. Even more so for me in recent weeks. Growing up in Coventry, I expected my origins would be in that ancient city. At school I did projects on its medieval past, and at university wrote a thesis on my former primary school. I was shocked and fascinated to find I was the first to be born in the city, fittingly enough, some would say, in the former workhouse infirmary. Though it was then Gulson Road Hospital, an imposing if still sombre edifice fronted by sandstone city wall. More on this wall later.