Taylor Swift Is Related To Emily Dickinson. It's Not A Big Deal. So Am I, Along With Tens Of Millions Of Other People.

If you have roots in New England, as Taylor and I do, you are quite likely also related to Ms. Dickinson.

Taylor Swift (b. 1989), Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), me (b. 1963, pictured 2008).

Recently-outed Pentagon psyop mastermind Taylor Swift is a distant relative of American poet Emily Dickinson, as reported by the genealogy company Ancestry on Monday.

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).

That makes Swift and Dickinson sixth cousins, three times removed. This fact got a bit of press, but it’s not really a big deal. It turns out that I’m almost exactly the same relation to Dickinson that Swift is. (Lots of people are; some famous ones are here.) Dickinson and I are sixth cousins, four times removed*. The difference is that Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather is Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and my 10th great-grandfather.

*: Also Dickinson’s sixth cousin, four times removed: Alec Baldwin, Kate Upton, Ethan Hawke, Bridget Fonda, Cindy Crawford, Margot Kidder, Camilla Parker Bowles, and Sarah Palin.

I’ve done extensive genealogy over the years and I happened to receive an email from familysearch.org on Monday with the subject line: “Allan, you’re related to Abraham Lincoln. Come see how!” Family Search has something called “Rootstech” that can be used to see how closely you are related to various famous people from the past. The site listed 24 people to whom I was connected, including Ms. Dickinson.

Three of my four grandparents have long-time roots in Vermont and Massachusetts (the fourth’s roots were in Quebec). If you have similar roots in New England, you are probably just as related to Dickinson as Taylor and I. My Family Search email revealed these other connections:

Abraham Lincoln: 5th cousins, six times removed

George Washington: 5th cousins, eight times removed

Susan B. Anthony: 5th cousins, five times removed

Wilbur Wright: 6th cousins, four times removed

Winston Churchill: 6th cousins, twice removed

Franklin D. Roosevelt: 7th cousins, three times removed

Lucille Ball: 7th cousins, twice removed

Marie Antoinette: 7th cousins, five times removed

Helen Keller: 8th cousins, twice removed

Jane Austen: 8th cousins, five times removed

Shirley Temple: 8th cousins, once removed

Elvis Presley: 9th cousins*

John Wayne: 9th cousins, once removed

Queen Victoria: 9th cousins, four times removed

Princess Diana: 10th cousins, once removed

Queen Elizabeth II: 10th cousins, twice removed

Muhammad Ali: 11th cousins, twice removed

*: Despite our age difference (Elvis was born nearly 29 years before I was), the King and I share a 9th great-grandfather: Isaac Learned).

Best of all:

Babe Ruth and I are 13th cousins.

Which means that George and I share a pair of great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents . . . Still, I’m going to imagine him handing me a beer at a family gathering. “Nice to meet ya, kid. You know, this is a big fuckin crowd.”