Who was the last person in your family who had dirt floors?

Coldgoron@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 70 points –

For me it was my Mother.

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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.

This has to be a Yank centric question. Very few places in Europe in the last 120 years would have had dirt floors unless they were very poor and rural.

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.

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

Interesting technicality, didn't see that coming.

I only count it because it was partially converted to a basement in 1926-9 and we do laundry down there as well as keep all the catboxes there. So my kids go down there for chores all the time. I have to keep reminding them to either put on shoes or go barefoot, though; they've ruined a lot of socks.

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 mother did. She also had a dirt floor one room elementary school. Grew up in the US south.

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.

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 β€œmodern” 1946 house

Im talking about a scenario where the person has to walk on dirt floors to get around their home.

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.

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.

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.

What century is this post from? Even my great great grandparents would have had floors in Victorian London. My dad had an outside toilet growing up, but the floor of it was concrete.

I suppose in developing countries you can find fairly recent examples.

Dirt floors in more rural and remote parts of America were not uncommon through the early part of the 20th century.