Ancestry reveals Taylor Swift is related to American poet Emily Dickinson

Taylor Swift is distantly related to another woman famous for her words: Emily Dickinson, a genealogy company revealed on Monday.

Swift and Dickinson are sixth cousins, three times removed, according to Ancestry.com. The "Cruel Summer" singer and the power both descend from a 17th-century English immigrant who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut. 

"Time to plan your visit to the Museum, Taylor Swift," The Emily Dickinson Museum said in response to the news.

Swift is currently in Singapore for her Eras Tour.

Fans of the singer have connected Swift to Dickinson in the past. The singer announced the release of "Evermore," her ninth studio album, on Dec. 10, 2020. Dickinson was born on Dec. 10, 1830. 

Swift's upcoming album, which she announced at the 2024 Grammys, is titled "The Tortured Poets Department."

The singer also referenced Dickinson in 2022 as she accepted the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International. In her speech, she said she has three categories for lyrics based on the writing implement she imagines using for writing the song.

"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," Swift said. 

Her other categories for lyrics are fountain pen lyrics and glitter gel pen lyrics. 

Dickinson died in 1886. She wrote nearly 1,800 poems in her lifetime.

In an email, an Ancestry spokesperson said the company used its "vast collection of online records to discover a family connection" between Swift and Dickinson.

"The remarkable connection between Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson is just one example of the incredible things you can discover when you explore your past. Even if we don't know it, our pasts can influence our present – and how fun to see all the uncanny similarities between the pair," Jennifer Utley, Ancestry's director of research, said.

Ancestry.com previously revealed that Tom Hanks is related to Mister Rogers. The pair share the same great-great-great-great-great grandfather. 

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Aliza Chasan

Aliza Chasan is a digital producer at 60 Minutes and CBSNews.com. She has previously written for outlets including PIX11 News, The New York Daily News, Inside Edition and DNAinfo. Aliza covers trending news, often focusing on crime and politics.

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