Taylor Swift Family History

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13th, 1989 to Scott and Andrea Swift in Reading, Pennsylvania.  Taylor and her younger brother Austin grew up at the family’s 15-acre Christmas tree farm.

Taylor’s musical talents were evident early.  They may have come from her mother’s side of the family.  Perhaps it was her mother who gave her the name of Taylor after the folk singer James Taylor.

It was her maternal grandmother Marjorie Finlay, an opera singer whom she had watched singing before crowds at church, who probably gave her the inspiration to perform and to pursue music as a career.  Marjorie died in her hometown of Reading in 2003.

Both of her parents supported Taylor’s musical ambitions.  When she was just fourteen years old and had achieved a record deal with Sony, they took a chance by uprooting the family from their Pennsylvania farm and relocating to the Nashville area to be close to the country music industry.

The Taylor Swift Phenomenon.  Her first album, Taylor Swift, was released in 2006 and soared to the number one spot of the Top Country Albums charts for a record-breaking 24 weeks.  Her next album Fearless, which came out two years later, was named Album of the Year and Best Country Album.

Later albums have widened her appeal to pop audiences and made her a mega-star.  Her songwriting is admired, as well as her singing performance.

Her Eras tour in 2023 proved to be a huge blockbuster.  And then there has been the romance with the footballer Travis Kelce, the tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs.  A record TV audience watched the Super Bowl in Las Vegas in February 2024 when Kansas City won and she embraced Travis in front of the TV cameras.

Early Swifts

Taylor’s Swift ancestors date back to Mayflower times.

Massachusetts.  William Swift, a leather seller in London, arrived in Massachusetts with his family in 1634.  He settled first in Watertown before moving to Sandwich on Cape Cod in 1639.  Later Swifts living there – such as his son William and grandsons William and Jireh – had large families of ten or more children.

The line from grandson William remained in Sandwich.  William Swift was a cattle drover in Sandwich in the 1830’s.  His sons Gustavus and Nathan Swift left for Chicago where they founded the famous Swift meat-packing enterprise.

Connecticut.  Deacon Jireh’s son Nathaniel, however, departed for Litchfield, Connecticut around 1740.  His son Nathaniel was a Lieutenant Captain during the Revolutionary War.

And his grandson Julius, born in Litchfield in 1792, moved in 1828 to a farm in upstate New York and then in 1845 to a farm in Erie county, Pennsylvania.  Over this time he had three wives and twenty-two children.  He was sixty-seven years old when his last child Capitola with Lydia was born in 1859.

Reader Feedback: I am a distant relative to Taylor Swift through Lydia Hawkins Swift, the third wife of Julius Swift whom he married in 1840.  I was the original owner of the tintype (a photograph on a piece of metal) of Lydia beside a pot belly stove which has been shown all over the internet. My aunt and uncle were given three tintypes of relatives when they went to visit in Winnipeg, Manitoba many years ago. I ended up with them since they had no one to pass them down to.

Karen Hawkins Hayes (chayes10@wowway.com).

Pennsylvania

Charles James Fox Swift, Julius’s son by Lydia, was born in 1845 and lived out his life in Erie county, Pennsylvania.  He was listed over the years as a hardware merchant, photographer, and insurance agent:

• his son Archie Dean Swift started out as a bank clerk in Elk county and progressed to be the Chairman of the Central Penn National Bank in 1947.
• while his grandson Archie Dean Swift Jr, born in 1914, was married twice and is the grandfather of Taylor Swift.

The Italian Connection.  There is an Italian family connection with these Swifts.  It began with Charles Baldi, an Italian immigrant who had arrived in Philadelphia in 1877 at the age of fifteen.

He opened his own coalyard in south Philadelphia in 1886 which he operated until his death in 1930, along with a number of other businesses.  He became rich and a civic leader in the city.

His daughter Louise married Charles Douglas, a US Congressman, and their daughter Rose Baldi Douglas married Archie Dean Swift Jr. in 1942.

Taylor Swift’s Family Tree

• Early Family Line

• William Swift (1593-1642) m. Sarah (1598-1625); rem. Joan Sisson (1599-1662) in 1625 in London.  He arrived in Massachusetts in 1634 and settled in Sandwich, Cape Cod in 1639
• – Edward Swift (1618-1642), with Sarah
• – Hannah Swift (1620-1665) m. Daniel Wing, with Sarah
• – William Swift (1627-1705), with Joan
• – Esther Swift (1629-1676) m. Henry Bull, with Joan

• William Swift m. Ruth (1628-1705) in Sandwich, Massachusetts in 1645
• – Hannah Swift (1651-1721) m. Thomas Tobey
• – William Swift (1654-1700) m. Elizabeth (his descendants Gustavus and Nathan Swift founded the famous Swift meat packing business in Chicago in the 19th century)
• – Ephraim Swift (1656-1741) m. Sarah Perry
• – Samuel Swift (1662-1730) m. Mary
• – Deacon Jireh Swift (1665-1749)
• – Hester Swift (1668-1737) m. John Gibbs
• – Temperance Swift (1669-1746) m. Timothy Bourne
• – Josiah Swift (1670-1749) m. Experience Nye
• – Dinah Swift (1672-1740) m. Benjamin Perry

• Deacon Jireh Swift m. Abigail Gibbs (1677-1740) in Sandwich, Massachusetts in 1697; rem. Mary Curtis in 1741
• – Alice Swift (1698-1783) m. James Crocker
• – Susannah Swift (1699-1745) m. Joseph Isham
• – Jabez Swift (1700-1767) m. Abigail Pope
• – Zephaniah Swift (1703-1781) m. Lydia Chapman
• – William Swift (1705-1748) m. Abigail Burgess
• – Nathaniel Swift (1708-1790)
• – Jireh Swift (1709-1792) m. Deborah Hathaway
• – Job Swift (1711-1801) m. Sarah Blackwell
• – Silas Swift (1713-1794) m. Abigail Tupper
• – Abigail Swift (1715-1796) m. Antipas Hammond

• Nathaniel Swift m. Abiah Tupper (1713-1782) in Sandwich, Massachusetts in 1730 and moved to Litchfield, Connecticut around 1740
• – Abigail Swift (1748-1794) m. Peleg Sturtevant
• – Nathaniel Swift (1749-1825)
• – Isaac Swift (1753-1802) m. Patience Case

• Nathaniel Swift m. Sarah Thomas (1749-1835) in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1769
• – Abigail Swift (1772-1851) m. Heman Comstock
• – Rufus Swift (1774-1855) m. Lydia Carter
• – Sarah Swift (1776-1810) m. Amasa Peters
• – Nathaniel Swift (1783-1833) m. Elizabeth Wakeman
• – Chloe Swft (1785-1815) m. Worthington Wright
• – Julius Swift (1792-1876)

• Julius Swift m. Betsy Bates (died in 1820) in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1815; rem. Laura Shove (died in 1838) in Litchfield, Connecticut in 1822 and moved in 1828 to a farm in upstate New York; rem. Lydia Hawkins (1818-1894) in New York in 1840 and moved in 1845 to a farm in Erie county, Pennsylvania
• – Sarah Swift (1840-1940) m. Leonard Vaughn, with Lydia
• – Hannah Swift (1842-1924, with Lydia
• – Charles Swift (1845-1909), with Lydia
• – Julius Swift (1846-1915), with Lydia
• – Huldah Swift (1846-1916) m. Abel Benjamin, with Lydia
• – Sherman Swift (1848-1925) m. Jane Nettleton, with Lydia
• – Dean Swift (1851-1918) m. Jesse Sanson, with Lydia
• – Chloe Swift (1853-1930) m. Alexander McClelland, with Lydia
• – Salina Swift (1856-1896) m. Charles Voss, with Lydia
• – Ceylon Swift (1856-1932) m. Lillie Stockton, with Lydia
• – Capitola Swift (1859-1941). with Lydia
• – plus eleven further children with two earlier wives

• Pennsylvania Family Line

• Charles Julius (or James Fox) Swift m. Josephine Reno (1848-1920) in Erie, Pennsylvania in 1869
• – Sarah Swift (1870-1947), m. Charles Bradshaw
• – Mabel Swift (1873-1960) m. Elmer Bostwick
• – Jessie Swift (1875-1955) m. Charles Kellam
• – Archie Dean Swift (1877-1961)
• – Ethel Swift (1879-1953) m. Henry Otterson
• – Chalmer Swift (1881-1938) m. Helen Cole
• – Pemberton Swift (1885-1918) m. Mary McCauley
• – Gertrude Swift (1889-1978)
• – Aubrey Swift (1890-1922) m. Catharine Balderston
• – Wilbur Swift (1892-1972) m. Ada Lepsch

• Archie Dean Swift from Erie, Pennsylvania m. Bernice Thompson (1882-1979) in Pennsylvania in 1909
• – Virginia Swift (1913-2002) m. David Conover
• – Archie Dean Swift (1914-1998)
• – Eugene Swift (1919-1973) m. Mary Easton

• Archie Dean Swift from Elk, Pennsylvania m. Barbara Godley in 1937 (divorced), rem. Rose Baldi Douglas from Italian grandparents (1920-1994) in Roxborough, Pennsylvania in 1942
• – Archie Dean Swift (b. 1946) m. Christine Dennis, with Rose
• – Douglas Baldi Swift (b. 1948) m. June Jennings, with Rose
• – Scott Kingsley Swift (b. 1952). with Rose

• Robert Finlay (1920-2003) m. Marjorie Moehlenkamp, opera singer (1928-2003) in Florida in 1952
• – Andrea Finlay (b. 1958)

• Scott Kingsley Swift m. Andrea Finlay in Texas in 1988
• – Taylor Swift (b. 1989). with Travis Kelce
• – Austin Swift (b. 1992). with Sydney Ness