Taylor Swift's roots? In Cilento: the star's ancestors left Italy in 1876 to make their fortune in the U.S.

Aug 05, 2023 5765

Taylor Swift has Cilento roots and would like to come to Italy to "see the places of her roots." That's right, the roots of the American singer-songwriter and actress who fills stadiums all over the world, an absolute star of world showbiz, are also to be found in Castelnuovo Cilento, a small town of 3,000 inhabitants in the province of Salerno. But how did this discovery come about?

As told by Giuseppe Galzerano, "it all started four to five years ago, I was doing research on the history of an Italian anarchist killed by the American police and at a certain point, consulting some U.S. newspapers, a 1920s news story from Castelnuovo Cilento appeared to me: it was about the death of a certain Rosa Baldi, whose children were in America. I connected that surname to the family tomb of a certain Vito Baldi, in the cemetery of my town."

And by cross-referencing data and news, Galzerano managed to get in touch with the descendants of a gentleman named Victor Baldi, living in Philadelphia, who in return sent the publisher a photo in which Rosa Baldi and Vito Baldi themselves were portrayed, holding their son. Who was that child? It was Carmine Carlo Antonio Baldi, "who left Castelnuovo Cilento for New York as soon as he was 14 years old in 1876, with only 14 cents in his pocket," Galzerano recounts further.

Camine Baldi married LuisaEurindine Sorbenheimer, sister of a famous Philadelphia barrister, by whom he had seven children, including Rosa, born in 1920, and who married Lieutenant Colonel Archie Dean Swift. The couple had three children, Archie III, Douglas, and Scott, that is, Taylor Swift's father. In short, tracing the family tree reveals that Taylor Swift has a great-great-grandfather in Cilento. And among the star's expressed intentions would be precisely to want to explore her roots. The opportunity to return to her roots is there, as Taylor Swift will be touring Italy in 2024, with two sold-out dates at Milan's San Siro Stadium.

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