Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and Their Common Ancestors

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The romantic relationship between global pop sensation Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce has captured the public's attention. The pair's romance began to make headlines in September 2023, when Swift was spotted at a Chiefs game cheering on Kelce. Since then, the couple has been seen at various public events, including football games and concerts, and their relationship has continued to garner media interest. The high-profile nature of both individuals has led to significant public fascination with their romance, making them a widely discussed celebrity couple. Meanwhile, our volunteer researchers have been working on confirming connections between the two and discovered something that may not be widely known.

Taylor and Travis are 9th cousins!

America's Sweethearts share a common ancestor, their 8th great-grandmother, Rachel (Bouton) St. John. Rachel was born 16 December 1667 in Norwalk, Fairfield, Connecticut to John Bouton and Abigail Marvin (Taylor and Travis' 9th great-grandparents). Both John and Abigail's families came over from England during the Puritan Great Migration and were some of the early settlers of Connecticut.

Taylor connects to Rachel through her father's side of the family and through Rachel's son Matthew, while Travis connects through his mother's side of the family and Rachel's daughter Elizabeth.

Here is a fun Presidential connection: John and Abigail are direct ancestors of US President Gerald Ford, his 7th great-grandparents, through their son John. That means that Rachel is President Ford's 6th great-grand-aunt. Travis and President Ford are 7th cousins 3 times removed, while Taylor and the President are 8th cousins 2x removed.

It all brings to mind the lyrics of Taylor's song "Invisible String":

"Isn't it just so pretty to think All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me?"

Her words encapsulate the whimsical and romantic notion of their connection, both in terms of their relationship and their shared ancestry.

What does it really mean to be 9th cousins?

Ninth cousins share a set of 8th great-grandparents, making them very distantly related, with approximately 20 degrees of separation between them. (Think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.) This degree of kinship is so remote that most individuals are unlikely to know or have ever knowingly met their ninth cousins. While being 9th cousins means sharing a common set of ancestors, it is highly unlikely that they share any significant amount of DNA. So, the big deal about being 9th cousins is mostly just a fun fact for your family history and not something that's gonna affect your life in any practical way. It's like, "Hey, did you know we're actually related?" and that's about it.

AmericanAncestors.org recently did a wonderful write-up about another Taylor/Travis connection. Read about that one here.