Taylor Swift is related to the poet Emily Dickinson, according to Ancestry.com.
The popular genealogy site found that the 34-year-old pop sensation and renowned 19th century American poet are sixth cousins thrice removed.
The site told NBC’s TODAY: “Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English immigrant (Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut).
“Taylor Swift’s ancestors remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line.”
Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue her music career, supported by her parents, Andrea and Scott Swift.
In contrast, Dickinson, a pivotal figure in American poetry, was born and raised in Amherst, Massachusetts. She passed away at the age of 55 in 1886.
Despite writing thousands of poems during her lifetime, only a handful were published while she was alive.
Many of her works were posthumously published after her younger sister, Lavinia, discovered her collection of nearly 1,800 poems.
Dickinson's poetry holds a revered place in American literature and is commonly studied in schools across the United States.
Swift, a 14-time Grammy winner, has referenced Dickinson in discussions about her songwriting, a connection echoed in the title of her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department.
While accepting 2022’s Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International, she said: “If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre.”
After surprising fans with the announcement of her eagerly awaited 11th studio album during the Grammys last month, Swift took to social media to unveil the tracklist comprising 17 songs, revealing collaborations with Post Malone and Florence and the Machine.
