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Geni in the press about Taylor Swift

Started by Erica Howton on Thursday, May 16, 2024
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Just found this on the front page of Randy Seaver’s blog.

https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/05/randys-cousins-8th-cousin-tayl...

Randy's Cousins -- 8th Cousin Taylor Swift, the Really Famous Singer, Songwriter, Performer

This week's famous cousin is Taylor Swift, the world famous American singer, songwriter and performer.

www.geni.com/media/proxy?media_id=6000000205801292848&size=large

Here is the first paragraph of her Wikipedia biography:

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American singer-songwriter. A subject of widespread public interest with a vast fanbase, she has influenced the music industry, popular culture, and politics through her songwriting, artistry, entrepreneurship, and advocacy.

Taylor Swift was connected to Louis XIV in a MyHeritage blog post this past week - see https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/05/myheritage-reveals-pop-queen-ta.... The connection was made on Geni.com, which I no longer can access for relationships. The blog post told me who her deceased grandfather was - Archie Dean Swift Jr. (1914-1998), who, according to the FamilySearch Family Tree, is my 6th cousin twice removed. Here is my relationship chart to Taylor Swift's grandfather:

www.geni.com/media/proxy?media_id=6000000205801133871&size=large

www.geni.com/media/proxy?media_id=6000000205800542902&size=large

Now add Taylor's father and Taylor to the list on the right and you can see that Taylor Swift is my 8th cousin.

My most recent common ancestors with cousin Taylor Swift are my 7th great-grandparents William Hawkins (1676-1712) and Elizabeth Arnold (1684-1758).

Are you related to Taylor Swift ? Check out her grandfather's profile on the FamilySearch Family Tree and click the "View Relationship" link at the top of the page. Note that you have to have your profile connected to the FamilySearch Family Tree in order for this to work.

This shows that you never know to whom you might be related!!! I'm having lots of Genealogy Fun. Click here to see all of my famous cousins.

My Seaver/Richmond cousins, my children and grandchildren will really love this! It's really too bad she's not dating a handsome Padres baseball player.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/05/randys-cousins-8th-cousin-tayl...

Here’s the MyHeritage post:

https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/05/myheritage-reveals-pop-queen-ta...

MyHeritage Reveals: Pop Queen Taylor Swift Is Related to Louis XIV, a.k.a. the Sun King
By Elisabeth Zetland ·
May 9, 2024

Louis XIV "le Grand" roi de France et Navarre is Taylor Swift's 8th cousin 11 times removed.

https://www.geni.com/path/Taylor-Swift+is+related+to+Louis-XIV-le-Grand-roi-de-France-et-Navarre?from=6000000006714651564&path_type=blood&to=6000000000842131607

Taylor Swift

Louis XIV "le Grand" roi de France et Navarre

I’m adding a diagram to her profile.

She is my 8th cousin.

Taylor Swift is my 6th great aunt's fifth great niece and also my 12th cousin once removed.

Nice!

This is the MyHeritage chart.

https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000205801269847
Louis XIV "le Grand" roi de France et Navarre is Taylor Swift's 8th cousin 11 times removed!

I’m tagging to Geni’s profiles, and adding biographies to those profiles where they’re missing.

Hitting a snag at the parentage of Phebe? Knapp

Can anyone help verify her origins? MH has her mother as Mary Nelson

Taylor Swift is my17th cousin five times removed.

Phebe? Knapp is seen as daughter of David Nelson & Mary Nelson who married 26 Sep 1740 in Rye, Hampshire, after Phebe was born.

Erica Howton I think I have found her in the will for David Nelson: Source Citation
Massachusetts, Essex County, Probate Records; Author: Massachusetts. Supreme Judicial Court (Essex County)

Description
Notes: Probate Records, Needham, S-Nelson, F, 1828-1991

Source Information
Ancestry.com. Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635-1991 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
Original data:Massachusetts County, District and Probate Courts.

Attached as a source under David. The dates fit for David, but I am a bit uncertain here about Phebe and also the spousal relationships. It is there for you to review, felt the best way to share it in case helpful

He certainly had a daughter Penelope Nelson. I think she was the one born

"Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", , FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZKL-QWP : 15 January 2020), Mary in entry for Phebe Nelson, Event Date 12 Jul 1744 Event Place Rowley, Essex, Massachusetts, United States

Which doesn’t work if she married 1754.

David Nelson, in his 1803 Will, names his daughters Mary Prime (?), Rachel Nelson, Phebe Nelson … Rachel Nelson to support & maintain Phebe.

Sounds like Mary is married, Rachel is single, and Phebe is either disabled (needing care) or underage. If she’s unmarried in 1803, she’s not the Phebe Nelson who married Amos Knapp in 1754.

Looking through this for you: https://www.cga.ct.gov/hco/books/Bushnell_Family_Genealogy.pdf

A lot about Knapps here as well, but sadly not solving Phebe Nelson's parentage question: https://ia600707.us.archive.org/13/items/titusknapployali00knap/tit...

Super cool, considering I was the one who initially added the Taylor Swift profile.❤️

Private User - you could always spot a star.

But the pedigree is breaking at Mary Nelson She can’t have been Phebe? Knapp mother, and she was the royalty gateway.

So, can we find another way?

Erica Howton do what needs to be done. :D

Emily Kent Marget

I think the will Private User found belongs to a different David Nelson, of Byfield father of yet another Phebe Nelson (b 1766, therefore fitting needing a guardian).

Am I right?

The Taylor Swift pedigree also breaks at the Atwood’s.

Mary Nelson Was the daughter of Thomas Atwood, of Ipswich but we don’t know his parents.

He was not the son of John Wood alias Atwood & Sarah Atwood I’ve detached.

It gets worse, because we don’t know John Wood alias Atwood‘s parents, either. He was not the son of John "the Leather Seller" Wood & Joan Atwood So he, too, has been detached from parents.

The pedigree jumps over from Atwood’s to Joan Atwood so I’ll continue from there.

I'm wondering if this profile could be the father of Phebe Nelson. Here on Geni, and elsewhere, the trees do not reflect Dr. John Nelson and Hannah Young Love as having a daughter named Phebe, but I found birth records indicating one born in Hartford in 1741.

Dr. John Henry Nelson, Jr.

Also, these Nelsons appear to be from Rowley, Massachusetts too originally, so possibly cousins to Davd Nelson?

A Nelson family in Connecticut is certainly a better bet than one on the North Shore of Massachusetts. 1741 Birth date seems too recent though, for a marriage in 1754 (if that’s an accurate date).

We should try searches of the Barbour Collection for Phebe Nelsons born in the 1730s.

Joan Atwood Ancestry is unproven and the Atwood’s are still a mess of speculation, despite nibbling at it for the last 15 years ….

Erica Howton Well... if Amos Knapp was born in 1739, that would make him 15 in 1754, right? So a 13 year old wife wouldn't be impossible? (Although it IS crazy by our measure, certainly!)

One of my grandmothers was married at 15....in the 1930s. :( I never learned the reason.

Assuming the Amos Knapp given here as the son of Ensign Amos and Phebe Nelson Knapp is the biological child of two people with those names, he seems to have been born in 1755. I am able to find sources for him elsewhere confirming the dates. I believe either he or his son named Amos also had a wife named Phebe, just to keep us on our toes. :-)

I need to update Amos then. The reference is that he was born on an unknown date in the 1630s,

A good rule of thumb for Puritans & Quakers is pretty much the same as 20th century America. First marriage for men, age 24-25. For women, about 22. Down south is a different story. Just look at all the “parents give consent” for under-18 men & under-16 women.

Did anyone notice this sister of Phebe Nelson Knapp?

Jenney Nelson

I did, but that is the only mention I see of Jenney so far.--i.e. in 1771.

This seems to be the Amos born in 1755:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/218572746/amos_knapp

SAR Member search is noting Amos Knapp DOB as 1940, which makes the 1754 marriage date even odder based on what you explained for typical marriage ages.

DAR #: A066155

Birth: 1740 Danbury / / CT
Death: 1784 New Lebanon / / NY

Qualifying Service Description:
Drummer, part of the alarm list of Danbury, CT
Served in Town Militia just outside Village of Danbury, CT at the time of Arnolds descent on Town of Danbury and the burning of the same

Additional References:
SAR Patriot Index Edition III (CD: PP2210, Progeny Publ, 2002) plus data to 2004
CT Rev Rolls, Military Record, Vol 8, pg 20

Spouse: XX Nelson
Children: Comfort;

Erica Howton Question: Do we know the Amos Knapp of this generation was married to a woman named Phebe? I'm wondering if the various trees out there have somehow grabbed the wife Phebe of Amos' great grandson and conflated her, and then combined with the Phebe from Massachusetts somehow?

I did not see Jenney Nelson having a known sister named Phebe or Phoebe. Only a brother in law named Amos Knapp, and the dates and locations fitting.

(Unless I missed something!)

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