Is ‘Derry Girl’ Taylor Swift one of the Gwynns from Fahan Street in the Bogside?

But does the pop superstar actually have roots in the Bogside? The ‘Journal’ had a dig around in the old censuses and believes she might be one of the Gwynns from the top of Fahan Street. She goes to Portsalon on her holidays after all.

The Irish Emigration Museum, with their genealogy partners the Irish Family History Centre, this week confirmed that the ‘Shake It Off’ and ‘Bad Blood’ star’s great-great-great grandparents emigrated from Derry to Philadelphia aboard the Amy in 1836.

A passenger manifest for the ship lists Susan Davis, a 21-year-old female dressmaker, and Francis Gwynn, a 21-year-old weaver, among those who sailed away from Derry Quay and ‘Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore’ on August 23, 1836.

The ‘Journal’ checked the 1831 Census and discovered a Francis Gwynn living at 1 Fahan Street, the famous street below the Derry Walls that connects the Bogside to the city centre.

Was this the same Francis who boarded the Amy five years later?

Swift’s Derry links are not particularly surprising given that she hails from West Reading in Pennsylvania.

The city’s connection with Philadelphia is famous. Presbyterians who had emigrated from Derry to the City of Brotherly Love throughout the 1700s had established strong trade links with their ancestral home.

Many thousands of people sailed, like Taylor Swift’s ancestors, from Derry to Philadelphia, during the 1700s and 1800s.

The passenger traffic was complemented by a thriving trade in linen and flax.

John W. Reps, the late Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning at Cornell, in his 1965 book ‘The Making of Urban America’ even suggests that William Penn may have been inspired by Derry’s grid system, originally laid out in the 1600s and extant today, when he was designing Philadelphia. Have a look at the two city centres on Google Earth and see what you think.

Taylor is no stranger to the North West. She visited Fanad a couple of years ago and posted pictures of herself enjoying a coffee and a dander on the glorious Ballymastocker beach at Port Salon. She is welcome back anytime. What about the Gasyard Féile!

Derry to Philadelphia: The Irish Gateway to America