Taylor Swift’s family tree shines with love, heartbreak and the triumph of the human spirit
9-10 minute read
By Ellie Ayton | March 27, 2024
Taylor Swift has taken the world by storm with her upbeat, raw and honest songs and lyrics. But what if we told you those same themes of love and heartbreak in her music can be found in her family history?
Taylor Swift is one of the world’s best-selling musicians. Her songs, personality and private life influence popular culture and news, particularly with her romance with Travis Kelce of the 2024 Super Bowl-winning team Kansas City Chiefs.
Taylor Swift in our newspaper collection. View this page.
But are there any stories from the Swift family tree that might allude to some of the recurring themes in her music, such as love and heartbreak, but also family, change and female independence?
Taylor’s ancestry is alive with fascinating characters.
Taylor Swift's family tree
Whether or not you're a Swiftie, delve into over six generations of Taylor's family history with us. Are you Ready For It? Let’s dive in.
Who are Taylor Swift’s parents?
Taylor Alison Swift was born on 13 December 1989. As many Swifties will already know, her parents are Scott Swift, a former stockbroker for Merrill Lynch, and Andrea Swift. She has a younger brother, Austin Swift.
Swift's family tree has Scottish and German roots on her mother’s side, and Scottish, Italian and 17th-century English heritage on her father’s side.
She also has a connection to the historic Mayflower. Swift’s 7x great-grandmother, Alice Warren, was the granddaughter of Mayflower passenger, Richard Warren, who sailed to the ‘New World’ from England in 1620.
View the full record here.
It’s said that around 10 million Americans and 35 million people worldwide today might have connections to this famous ship.
Is Taylor Swift Italian?
Taylor Swift has Italian ancestry on her father’s side. Her paternal grandmother, Rose Baldi Douglas, was the daughter of Charles Gwynn Douglas and Louise Baldi. We found the passport application of Charles Baldi, Louise's father.
Charles Baldi in 1923. View the full record here.
Charles was born in Castelnuovo, Cilento, Italy in 1862. His father was Vito Baldi. Charles sailed from Naples to the United States in 1876 or 1877 and became a real estate broker in Philadelphia. An earlier passport application from 1920 gave his height as 5’9”, his eyes as brown, and his complexion as dark and clear.
Who is the song marjorie about?
Taylor Swift’s song marjorie, from the album evermore, is about her maternal grandmother, Marjorie Moehlenkamp. The lyrics sound like a letter written from Taylor to Marjorie, a kind of moving letter to beyond the grave. But who was Marjorie?
Marjorie was an opera singer, born in Tennessee in 1928 to parents Elmer Moehlenkamp and Cora Lee Morrow.
Marjorie in the 1940 US Census. View the full record here.
Marjorie would later marry Taylor’s maternal grandfather, Robert Bruce Finlay. Robert was the son of Lancelot George Finlay and Eleanor Mayer.
And this is where the story starts to get interesting, because Taylor’s great-grandfather Lancelot George Finlay is a bit of a mystery...
Taylor Swift’s English roots
The census records we’ve seen so far suggest that Taylor Swift’s great-grandfather on her father’s side, Lancelot ‘Lance’ George Finlay, was born in England and was of Scottish and South African descent. But the more we researched his origins, the more contradictions we started to find.
Taylor’s great-grandfather Lancelot George Finlay in 1934. View here.
One record from 1934, which gives the photo above, states Lance was an engineer, born in Southampton, England in 1876. He emigrated to the United States in 1897.
But an earlier document from 1927 states he emigrated first under the name George Finlay. It also tells us he married his wife, Eleanor, on 29 November 1917 in Ohio. His WW1 draft registration card from 1918 says he’s a citizen of Scotland.
Lance’s WW1 draft registration card from 1918. View the full record here.
Let’s see if we can solve the mystery of who Taylor’s great-grandfather was.
It’s a Love Story...?
Upon finding his marriage record to Eleanor, we notice something else – his birthplace is listed as at sea. Plus, he’s previously been married once and is divorced, as is Eleanor.
Marriage of Swift’s great-grandparents in November 1917. See the full record here.
Which means there is more to Lance’s story than meets the eye.
Lance’s earlier marriage from 1910. See the full record here.
The record above contains more clues. His occupation was mechanical engineer, his birthplace was again at sea. But here we also get his parents’ names and places of birth – George Finlay, born in Scotland, and Mary Williams, born in Malta. So, not South Africa as the later census record stated...
Intriguingly, it also says this marriage in 1910 is his second marriage, not his first. He was divorced in June 1910 in Ohio. His wife here is named Margaret, also divorced, whose father was Polish. So, back to the marriage records we went. And we found that Lance married Jessie Peebles on 3 November 1909 in Pennsylvania. But, as you probably guessed, that’s still not his first marriage.
Marriage of Lance Finlay to Jessie Peebles in 1909. See the full record here.
According to the marriage record above, Lance was born in Scotland and his former wife died in November 1908. If you’re counting, that’s four marriages for Taylor Swift’s great-grandfather. Like his descendant, was he pursuing true love worthy of 21st-century pop songs?
We don’t know the identity of his first wife, but given she died in 1908, Lance may have been suffering from a broken heart.
Does Taylor Swift have Scottish roots?
So, we’ve now got a good picture of Taylor’s great-grandfather Lancelot George Finlay, can we find his true origins?
George Finlay travelled to the US in 1896. See the full record here.
Lance’s naturalisation record says he emigrated under the name George Finlay. Travelling alone, Lance (or George, as we’ll call him from now on) was a single mechanic. George must have incorporated Lancelot, or Lance, into his name after emigrating.
We can also turn to census records, newspapers and birth records to build up a bigger picture of George’s earlier years. We can learn that George Finlay was born on 16 November in Southampton, to parents George and Emma Maria Finlay.
Birth record of Taylor’s great-grandfather, 1875.
Note George’s place of birth here – a house in Southampton, not at sea as he later claimed. He was baptised the same day his birth was registered – New Year’s Eve, 1875.
We next find George and his mother in the 1881 Census at 448 Commerical Road, Portsea, Hampshire. His mother Emma Maria is listed as a tobacconist and stationer, a widow, and a British subject born in Malta in 1846. And we get further pieces of the story – she has other children.
George Finlay in 1881. You can see the full record here.
George had two older sisters, Alice and Myra, both born in South Africa in 1864 and 1873. This explains the earlier South African link – though born in Malta, Emma spent some time in South Africa. And because we have Emma’s maiden name, Williams, and her first married name Whiffen, we find she married Thomas Whiffen in Simon’s Cape, South Africa in 1860 – the father of Alice and Myra.
Thomas Whiffen died shortly before his second daughter Myra was born, leaving Emma to raise two children alone. This strong woman, who had already relocated from Malta to South Africa, was about to embark on the next stage of her life, an adventure that would take her to England. Change was in the air, and she seemed to embrace it.
One of Taylor’s songs is named When Emma Falls in Love, which appears on her studio album Speak Now. Though it’s not known to have a link to her 2x great-grandmother, we can’t help but wonder if the pull of family history could be at work here.
Our theory is that Emma met George Finlay senior in South Africa, while he was stationed there with the Royal Navy, and returned to England with him while pregnant with her son, George.
We’ve not been able to find a marriage record for George senior and Emma, and as Emma is in the 1881 Census as a widow (despite George being alive) we believe they didn’t marry. Or, their marriage record does not survive.
George in the 1891 Census with his mother and sister. See the full record here.
We think that George Senior and Emma soon went their separate ways. Emma married Royal Navy instructor George Downer in 1897, and we find the family a little earlier on the 1891 Census, as seen in the record above. Young George is listed as George Downer, an apprentice in the merchant service.
Emma’s obituary in the Brixham Western Guardian, 7 October 1909.
Emma died at a nursing home in Paignton, Devon in 1909 – this short obituary was placed in a local newspaper. Her daughter Myra married William Henry Hole in Devon in 1896, and later married Frederick Tolchard in 1917.
Photos of two of George Finlay’s cousins, Aubrey (left) and Leonard (right) from their Merchant Navy records.
Three of Myra’s sons – Aubrey Gilbert Whiffen Hole, Leonard Dent Hole, and Oscar William Alfred Hole – cousins to George, were all in the Merchant Navy or Royal Navy. George had left England by 1896, so he probably never met his cousins.
Given that Aubrey and Leonard, pictured above, share an ancestor with Taylor Swift in Emma Maria Williams, can you see a family resemblance? Both Aubrey and Oscar went onto marry and have families of their own (Leonard sadly died in 1923). This means Taylor Swift may have living relatives in England today.
Does Taylor Swift have Irish ancestry?
We last saw George Finlay senior, Taylor Swift’s 2x great-grandfather, as an assistant paymaster in the Royal Navy. But his long career did not end there.
The long list of ships George Finlay senior served on, from Royal Navy Officers 1899-1919.
His life at sea spanned over 40 years, beginning as a humble clerk in 1866, and retiring as Paymaster Rear Admiral. At some point, he married a woman named Louisa, who was listed with him in the 1881 Census. We find them in the 1911 Census in Bournemouth, and later in the 1921 Census when George had retired.
Taylor’s 2x great-grandfather George Finlay in the 1921 Census.
This is likely the first of Swift’s ancestors found in the 1921 Census. We also learn that George was born in the Harold’s Cross area of Dublin. He died in Southbourne in 1925.
Finally, by finding his obituary in the newspapers, we learn the identity of George Senior’s father – George W Finlay, a justice of the peace for Dublin County – Taylor Swift’s 3x great-grandfather.
Taylor's tree has roots that stretch back to Britain. So, if you have a Blank Space in your family tree, perhaps you could share an ancestor with the princess of modern pop music.
Eager to learn about more of our celebrity genealogy discoveries? Head over to the Discoveries section of our blog for family trees of the Doctor Who actors, the cast of The Crown and more.
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