Ask Lemmy

me

i have been homeless before for months

To bw honest, no clue, both my parents didn't have dirt floors and they were born in '43 and '48. Maybe my grandparents, but I can't check anymore, as all family members at my mother's side are dead, as well as the oldest ones at my father's side. (Including both my parents)

I guess dirt floors were for the very poor pre WW2 in the Netherlands.

It's my kids. We bought a 1880 cottage and it still has a dirt floor cellar.

We're going back to at least my great grandparents, if not further, it's very likely we'd be looking at some long-forgotten relative in "the old country"

My dad once worked in a steel mill, on his first day on the job they gave him a broom and told him to sweep the floors. After a sweeping for a while while with no obvious progress being made he eventually realized it was a dirt floor.

I have to say I have no idea. What an interesting question!

I live in Finland, and the winters can be pretty rough. There is also a long tradition of building from wood. It would be impractical to build a house, usually with several fireplaces, only for the heat to escape through the ground.

Dirt floors are only used in structures where people don't spend the night, for example sheds. Also, there is an old church from the 15th century with the original dirt floor because of its historical significance.

My family disappeared into white trash before we know that answer.

Meanwhile, my wife can trace her family back to an early 19th century vice president and actual slave owners.

Edit: to be fair, I did my genetic analysis and do now know of distant relatives (whom I will probably never contact). I don't think that counts though.

My maternal grandparents in New Britain, CT.

Does it count if I looked at a couple houses with dirt floors while trying to buy? Prices are pretty high here and we have a lot of older houses. However I decided it must have concrete basement floors and no fieldstone walls, which eventually landed me in a “modern” 1946 house

My wife's parents had dirt floors before they moved to America.

Me. There are some benefits, and you can sweep it clean. Still dirtier than wood though.

I think that would be my great grandmother

Technically me, but I have no recollection. My mom used to say that my grandpa coated the floor with something after I was born because it was too rough for me to crawl.

My mother currently has dirt floors.

Just asked my dad, an uncle in my grandfather's generation. Right outside of the Omaha, Nebraska area.

My grandparents on both sides

Grew up in a house that had a half dirt basement. House was built on a hillside where the topsoil is pretty thin and excavating out bedrock would have been pretty expensive. I suppose im using 'dirt' pretty loosely, most of the actual dirt was scoured away before the foundations were poured, so it was really just bare rock.

Does a basement floor count?

I don’t know about dirt floors, but my mom grew up with an outhouse.

My parents I guess, their toilet it outside.

Not sure. Both sides of my family have been fairly well off for centuries as far as we can gather. In the old country my paternal last name alludes to the area of the country we came from which would have been farmland. Don’t have any ancestry info from that period though.

Me