Following the release of the magazine, we had some excellent feedback about the article as well as more alumni getting in touch to tell us about their connections – including graduates who had followed in their parents’ and grandparents’ footsteps.
So we’ve put together an update to the story to include these. If you haven’t seen the previous article, you can read original Alumni Families feature here.
The Seed family
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One of the first alumni to reach out to us was Dr Luke Seed, an academic here at Sheffield in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering.
We thought we had found some good connections before but Luke amazed us by sharing his family connections which included 13 members with a link to Sheffield, and a total of 14 degrees between them.
Luke told us that the connections to Sheffield started with his parents, Leo and Wynne, who met while at the University as they were both interested in theatre. Leo and Wynne were both involved in theatre performances in the Graves Theatre – Wynne acting on the stage while Leo provided technical support.
Following them, 5 of their children also went to Sheffield, many of whom met their partners at the University, and they are now onto the third generation following the family tradition of studying at Sheffield.
The Young / Nicholson family
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We were also contacted by Drs Robert and Jackie Nicholson who told us about their family with 5 generations connected to the University’s Medical School.
The connections started with Dr Archibald Young Snr, who was a lecturer at the Sheffield Medical College (one of three institutions which combined to become the University we know today) back in the late 1800s. He was followed by his son, also Archibald, who would have been one of the University’s earliest Medical students.
Two of Archibald Jnr’s children also graduated from medicine, before Robert joined the University. While studying, Robert met his wife Jackie, and they were followed by their son Tom who became the sixth doctor in the family to graduate from Sheffield.
The Dann / Walker / Carr family
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For our third tree we have two families of Sheffield graduates who have come together, and who can trace their history back to the building of the University.
Lewis Dann and his sister Mary followed in the footsteps of their parents (who met studying Chemistry), by coming to Sheffield in the 1960s. Lewis was later followed by his son Robert who met his partner Hannah whilst they were both studying.
Hannah’s family also has a long history at Sheffield with her brother, mother, aunt, and grandfather all being Sheffield graduates. However, the family can also trace its way back to Henry Boot who in the late 1800s founded the Henry Boot building company, and who was involved in the construction of Western Bank and Firth Court.