From her father’s Christmas tree farm and mother’s days in Singapore to her connections with maternal grandmother, Opera star Marjorie Finlay and American poet Emily Dickinson, here’s everything interesting you need to know about the family members of Taylor Swift.
While Swift often mentions her family members in her empowering music and lyrics, her concert at the Singapore National Stadium in Kallang in March 2024 has led to a keen interest in her maternal lineage.
The American singer-songwriter is currently riding high on the success of her sixth concert tour — The Eras Tour. As we await the release of her upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department on 19 April 2024, let’s take a close look at the Swift family.
Love Taylor Swift? Here are 13 facts you should know about her family
Who are Taylor Swift’s parents?
Scott Kingsley Swift, Taylor’s father, was born in Pennsylvania on 5 March 1952 and is the son of Archie Dean Swift Jr. and Rose Baldi Douglas. In 1974, Scott graduated from the University of Delaware and went on to become a stockbroker. He eventually established the Swift Group as part of the prominent Wall Street investment firm Merrill Lynch.
Taylor’s mother, Andrea Gardner Swift (née Finlay), was born on 10 January 1958 to Robert Bruce Finlay and Marjorie Finlay, in Pennsylvania. A former mutual fund marketing executive, Andrea is of Scottish and German descent.
Taylor Swift’s parents got married in Texas
Scott and Andrea exchanged vows on 20 February 1988 in Harris County, Houston, Texas. They welcomed Taylor on 13 December 1989, and two years later, her brother Austin completed the Swift family.
In 2012, it was reported that Andrea and Scott had separated after 24 years.
They owned a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania
Did you know Taylor Swift spent her early years on a Christmas tree farm with her family? It was the singer’s father who had purchased the approximately 6-hectare farm from one of his clients in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania.
Now you know where the “Cardigan” singer gets her deep affection for Christmas. Taylor has always reminisced about her memories on the farm and even visited it in 2018.
The family relocated to Tennessee to help Taylor Swift build her career
After 14-year-old Taylor landed her first major record deal with Sony in 2003, the Swift family moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee, just outside of Nashville, to help their daughter pursue her music career. Consequently, Scott also moved his financial advisory business — The Swift Group, to their new address.
However, Scott and Andrea didn’t let Taylor feel the pressure of their relocation and assured her that the move was “a change of scenery.”
“I never wanted to make that move about her ‘making it’,” Andrea told Entertainment Weekly in an interview in 2008. “Because what a horrible thing if it hadn’t happened, for her to carry that kind of guilt or pressure around,” she further added.
Soon, Taylor made her onstage debut as a rising Country singer at the Grand Ole Opry in September 2006. While Andrea began accompanying her daughter on the road as her career took off, her dad Scott stayed home to take care of Austin.
They supported her dreams since her childhood
It’s no secret that the singer’s has her biggest fans in her family. Her mother Andrea supported the singer’s passion for music since childhood and even drove Taylor to Nashville to submit demos of her singing karaoke.
“My mom waited in the car with my little brother while I knocked on doors up and down Music Row. I would say, ‘Hi, I’m Taylor. I’m 11. I wanted a record deal — call me,’” Taylor revealed to Entertainment Weekly in 2008.
Meanwhile, Scott told UDaily about his daughter’s love for music as a kid. He said that Taylor “was always singing music when she was 3, 5, 6, 7, years old. It’s Taylor doing what she likes to do.”
Both her parents are cancer survivors
Taylor explained Swifties about her mother having been diagnosed with cancer in a Tumblr post in 2015.
In 2019, the “Lover” star shared in a personal essay for Elle that Andrea’s cancer had returned. She also revealed that her father had also previously been diagnosed with cancer.
“Both of my parents have had cancer,” she wrote.
Taylor’s mother spent her childhood in Singapore
The singer’s mother, who was born in Pennsylvania, had also spent five years of her childhood in Singapore. She was even a student at the Singapore American School.
A lot of the time when we came here on tour, my mum would take me and drive me past her old house and where she used to go to school. So, I’ve been hearing about Singapore my whole life,” the singer said after performing her song “Marjorie” at her first show at the Singapore National Stadium in Kallang, on 2 March 2024.
Taylor’s father is a fan of her boyfriend’s football team
Scott first met Taylor’s boyfriend, American football player Travis Kelce in Argentina — during a trip they both made to support the singer at her The Eras Tour concerts in Buenos Aires.
While on the trip, Kelce successfully made Scott a fan of his football team, the Kansas City Chiefs. Since then, Taylor’s father has been consistently supporting the Chiefs and even joined his daughter at two NFL games in December 2023.
The Swift family also cheered on Kelce’s team when the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl on 11 February 2024.
Taylor’s brother: An actor-producer who loves photography
Taylor’s brother, Austin Swift was born on 11 March 1992. A film lover since childhood, his passion for acting led him to the University of Notre Dame. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in film studies in 2015.
Austin made his big screen debut in the 2016 crime thriller I.T., co-starring Irish actor Pierce Brosnan. With an array of notable films to his credit, Austin is steadily making a mark in Hollywood. The actor also enjoys production credits for his sister, with him being listed as an executive producer on Taylor’s Disney Plus documentary Folklore: The Long Pond Sessions. He is also credited for producing the music video for “I Bet You Think About Me (Taylor’s Version)”.
A freelance photographer in his spare time, Austin is dating model Sydney Ness.
Her maternal grandmother was an Opera icon
The “Love Story” singer’s maternal grandmother, Marjorie Finlay (née Moehlenkamp), was an opera singer. Taylor has revealed on multiple platforms that her earliest memories of Marjorie — those of singing in church — helped shape her career.
According to sources, Marjorie was a classically trained virtuoso opera singer who performed with orchestras throughout Latin America.
According to a 1952 newspaper clipping from the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Marjorie enrolled in the Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri and stayed in a sorority.
The opera star became a part of the Swift family when she married the maternal grandfather of Taylor, Robert Finlay, in 1952. The latter was the president of the real estate management company Raymond Construction.
Taylor dedicated her ballad ‘Marjorie’ to her late maternal grandmother
The American singer released a ballad titled “Marjorie” in 2020, as one of the tracks from her album Evermore.
Inspired by her late maternal grandmother, the track is a heartwarming tribute to her memories before her demise in 2003.
Her maternal grandmother once lived in a colonial bungalow in Singapore
On 3 March 2024, Rick Koh Buck Song, a writer from Singapore, shared in a Facebook post that scenes in the music video from Taylor’s song “Marjorie”, composed of old clips of her grandmother, might have been shot in Singapore in the 1960s.
In the video, Mrs. Finlay, clad in a beautiful yellow dress, walks out of a British colonial bungalow towards a Ford car with licence plate number SM 8860.
The Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson family connection
According to Billboard, Genealogy company Ancestry revealed on 4 March 2024 that Taylor Swift and the famous American poet Emily Dickinson are related. They said, “Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th-century English immigrant (Swift’s ninth great-grandfather and Dickinson’s sixth great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut)”. The family members of Taylor Swift reportedly “remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in north-western Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line”.
Not to forget, Taylor Swift once referenced Dickinson while accepting the Songwriter Artist of the Decade award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International. She said, “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.”
(Hero and featured image credit: Taylor Swift/Instagram)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– Who are there in the Taylor Swift family?
The family members of the Swift family include the parents of Taylor, Scott Swift and Andrea Swift (née Finlay) and younger brother Austin Smith. As for Taylor’s ancestors, her late maternal grandmother Marjorie Finlay has recently been in the headlines after Taylor shared her memories of Singapore with her mother and grandmother at her first show at the Singapore National Stadium in Kallang, on 2 March 2024.
– Are Taylor Swift’s parents still together?
No, her parents separated in 2012, after 24 years of togetherness.
– What happened to Taylor Swift’s mom?
Swift and her family members were devastated when her mother Andrea was diagnosed with cancer in 2015 and after recovery, once again in 2019. She survived both times and is currently enjoying her life in good health.
– Is Taylor Swift an only child?
No, Taylor has a younger brother, Austin Swift.
