Can you be more specific about what “ancestral homes” means to you?
Very few
Sure, some do. Americans move around a lot though and it’s unusual for them to last more than two generations.
I’m sure some do but most have never heard of the concept. It’s something I had never heard about until I heard of it from my Mexican friends.
What do you actually mean? Outside of old, old money, it’s extremely unusual for a family to live in the same home for more than 2 generations.
How ancestral are we talking here?
My family does kind of, though I’ve never heard this term.. A cousin of mine is renovating it right now to as close to its original state as possible. It was my grandma’s parents home, from the late 1800s.
Maybe but not necessarily in the US lol
Define that for me
Most people don’t
There are some people that have had a home in their family for a long time, but that’s not really that common
I mean, there’s not that many homes in the United States that are older than 100 years old that people are living in
Not in the way you probably think. I live in a regular house in a regular neighborhood but the house has been in our family for a while. I’m the third generation to live in it. There’s no *real* connection to the *house.*
Some do, most don’t.
That’s a good question. Usually not. Over the past 60 or so years, at least, homes have usually been built for cost-effectiveness and size/square-footage. They’re usually built of wood, not brick, which makes them less durable. Not something that’s going to last for 100+ years unless it was really built well or you have a strong attachment to it where you’re willing to pay for ongoing maintenance.
Some do. I have one in Ireland and one in Canada. Nothing in the USA.
Kind of but it hasn’t had heat or running water in over a decade… And Hobby Lobby across the way is looking to expand.
So, generally, no
No, we all just popped into existence. Some of us popped earlier than others.
My late grandfather left the old country as a young man before the communists won the civil war. I believe he sold off the home many years ago. I do have some relatives still living there but I don’t really have much interest in going back given the ongoing tensions between the US and the Old Country.
I moved away 30 years ago and there’s no where to go back to even if I wanted to.
My spouse’s family still owns and lives in the home (or at least in a home on the same land) that they first owned about 175 years ago. The current home is at least 100 years old. So, kinda?
Does grandmas house count?
Sort of. Not in the landed gentry sense, but some families have lived in the same area for hundreds of years or more. And Indigenous Americans do, obviously, since their families have been here for thousands of years or more. But usually when an American says “ancestral home” they mean the ones their near or distant ancestors came from in the past 500 years, in Europe, Asia or Africa, mostly.
I would think farms or ranches would be an ancestral home here. But most get broken up and sold due to the younger generation wanting something different or from property taxes.
Some do. Think The Kennedys, The Prescotts, Pierces, Bushes, DuPonts, Rockefellers, etc.
My family has ancestral land. It’s not exactly a home. I think most people would be more likely to use the term familial property. Most people don’t have ancestral homes.
I lived in 10 houses/apartments before I turned 18. My dad moved from Montana to California as a kid. Both of his parents were from other tiny towns in Montana, so small they no longer exist. My mother was a Navy brat who lived everywhere from California to Seattle to Maryland to Hawaii to Japan. Both of her parents were from different small towns in Colorado (those towns at least still exist). So: no.
I’m into genealogy and on one side of the family, every generation including me has been born in a different state since the early 1700s.
We have some weird accents.
Most homes that had the potential to be, became museum homes at some point. A very large and famous example would be The Biltmore, but there are smaller houses dotted across the country.
Too expensive, too many heirs fighting over it, no heirs to fight over it; reasons vary.
No, unless your family is extremely rich and have been in the country 100+ years.
Yes! Some of us. I have a crazy familiarity with my family’s hometown/area in South Carolina. Apparently ancestors left Jamestown and stopped in that small town. I have no idea why and it’s not really something I think about. My wife actually asked me this when we were visiting an area near there, where I had lived for a while. About that area, I had no sentiment. However later in the trip I felt it quite strongly in that small town. Like these tiny backroads are engrained in my dna. I know where I am when I actually shouldn’t.
My ancestral home is now a golf course. Thanks Grampa.
Not very often, mostly it is farming families that stay in the same home over generations. My sister-in-law’s family has been on the same farm since at least 1912. On the other hand, our family hasn’t lived in the same house/apartment for more than 20 years (usually much less) during the same time period.
Yeah, on Cape Cod for sure, and *ahem* certain agriculturally-central estates in the deep south
It’s America, there’s a mixed bag, it’s kind of our whole thing, at least until Fuhrer Donald takes us straight to Gilead (IMHO).
My family moved around when I was a kid but my folks do still have one of their childhood homes in their possession that is built on property the family has owned since the early 1800s (farmland), though I highly doubt they’ll ever live in it. It will likely pass to me and my siblings and we’ll decide whether to keep it or not. In all likelihood the house will be demolished and we’ll end up selling the land to the developers that keep calling to ask about it (don’t tell my parents this though).
Most do not. Besides the indigenous people here who were often forced to leave their lands, almost everyone here is either descended from immigrants or enslaved people.
The biggest wave of immigration was about the 1880s to the 1920s, and many were fleeing Europe due to instability, poverty, etc.
Cities have areas that had a certain ethnic group that created a community, like Chinatown or Little Italy, etc. but not individual homes that are passed down over multiple generations. It usually only happens if you have a lot of money, or a small family farm. I think once an old home is in disrepair, the taxes aren’t really worth it and neighborhoods change and people don’t want to live in the same place, and many city people moved to the suburbs in the 40s-50s. Not everyone set down roots either, and the east coast was colonized about 200 years before the west coast so it is different depending on where in the US it was developed.
Native American return to dwellings that their ancestors occupied as part of sacred ritual.
In my family? No.
A very large number of Americans are 21st century families who immigrated close to and after 1900. And most of this people who came were too poor to afford a home they could even pass down.
In NC and VA I know people with ancestral homes. They are rural farmers. Over the generations they have had to sell off some land.
The ultra rich from the 1800’s built homes that remain in the families. Like Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc. Also old money that wasn’t ultra rich have passed down ancestral homes.
Some of the historical homes ended up as museums. I live near many museum houses but they are truly all over America.
38 comments
Can you be more specific about what “ancestral homes” means to you?
Very few
Sure, some do. Americans move around a lot though and it’s unusual for them to last more than two generations.
I’m sure some do but most have never heard of the concept. It’s something I had never heard about until I heard of it from my Mexican friends.
What do you actually mean? Outside of old, old money, it’s extremely unusual for a family to live in the same home for more than 2 generations.
How ancestral are we talking here?
My family does kind of, though I’ve never heard this term.. A cousin of mine is renovating it right now to as close to its original state as possible. It was my grandma’s parents home, from the late 1800s.
Maybe but not necessarily in the US lol
Define that for me
Most people don’t
There are some people that have had a home in their family for a long time, but that’s not really that common
I mean, there’s not that many homes in the United States that are older than 100 years old that people are living in
Not in the way you probably think. I live in a regular house in a regular neighborhood but the house has been in our family for a while. I’m the third generation to live in it. There’s no *real* connection to the *house.*
Some do, most don’t.
That’s a good question. Usually not. Over the past 60 or so years, at least, homes have usually been built for cost-effectiveness and size/square-footage. They’re usually built of wood, not brick, which makes them less durable. Not something that’s going to last for 100+ years unless it was really built well or you have a strong attachment to it where you’re willing to pay for ongoing maintenance.
Some do. I have one in Ireland and one in Canada. Nothing in the USA.
Kind of but it hasn’t had heat or running water in over a decade… And Hobby Lobby across the way is looking to expand.
So, generally, no
No, we all just popped into existence. Some of us popped earlier than others.
My late grandfather left the old country as a young man before the communists won the civil war. I believe he sold off the home many years ago. I do have some relatives still living there but I don’t really have much interest in going back given the ongoing tensions between the US and the Old Country.
I moved away 30 years ago and there’s no where to go back to even if I wanted to.
My spouse’s family still owns and lives in the home (or at least in a home on the same land) that they first owned about 175 years ago. The current home is at least 100 years old. So, kinda?
Does grandmas house count?
Sort of. Not in the landed gentry sense, but some families have lived in the same area for hundreds of years or more. And Indigenous Americans do, obviously, since their families have been here for thousands of years or more. But usually when an American says “ancestral home” they mean the ones their near or distant ancestors came from in the past 500 years, in Europe, Asia or Africa, mostly.
I would think farms or ranches would be an ancestral home here. But most get broken up and sold due to the younger generation wanting something different or from property taxes.
Some do. Think The Kennedys, The Prescotts, Pierces, Bushes, DuPonts, Rockefellers, etc.
My family has ancestral land. It’s not exactly a home. I think most people would be more likely to use the term familial property. Most people don’t have ancestral homes.
I lived in 10 houses/apartments before I turned 18. My dad moved from Montana to California as a kid. Both of his parents were from other tiny towns in Montana, so small they no longer exist. My mother was a Navy brat who lived everywhere from California to Seattle to Maryland to Hawaii to Japan. Both of her parents were from different small towns in Colorado (those towns at least still exist). So: no.
I’m into genealogy and on one side of the family, every generation including me has been born in a different state since the early 1700s.
We have some weird accents.
Most homes that had the potential to be, became museum homes at some point. A very large and famous example would be The Biltmore, but there are smaller houses dotted across the country.
Too expensive, too many heirs fighting over it, no heirs to fight over it; reasons vary.
No, unless your family is extremely rich and have been in the country 100+ years.
Yes! Some of us. I have a crazy familiarity with my family’s hometown/area in South Carolina. Apparently ancestors left Jamestown and stopped in that small town. I have no idea why and it’s not really something I think about. My wife actually asked me this when we were visiting an area near there, where I had lived for a while. About that area, I had no sentiment. However later in the trip I felt it quite strongly in that small town. Like these tiny backroads are engrained in my dna. I know where I am when I actually shouldn’t.
My ancestral home is now a golf course. Thanks Grampa.
Not very often, mostly it is farming families that stay in the same home over generations. My sister-in-law’s family has been on the same farm since at least 1912. On the other hand, our family hasn’t lived in the same house/apartment for more than 20 years (usually much less) during the same time period.
Yeah, on Cape Cod for sure, and *ahem* certain agriculturally-central estates in the deep south
It’s America, there’s a mixed bag, it’s kind of our whole thing, at least until Fuhrer Donald takes us straight to Gilead (IMHO).
My family moved around when I was a kid but my folks do still have one of their childhood homes in their possession that is built on property the family has owned since the early 1800s (farmland), though I highly doubt they’ll ever live in it. It will likely pass to me and my siblings and we’ll decide whether to keep it or not. In all likelihood the house will be demolished and we’ll end up selling the land to the developers that keep calling to ask about it (don’t tell my parents this though).
Most do not. Besides the indigenous people here who were often forced to leave their lands, almost everyone here is either descended from immigrants or enslaved people.
The biggest wave of immigration was about the 1880s to the 1920s, and many were fleeing Europe due to instability, poverty, etc.
Cities have areas that had a certain ethnic group that created a community, like Chinatown or Little Italy, etc. but not individual homes that are passed down over multiple generations. It usually only happens if you have a lot of money, or a small family farm. I think once an old home is in disrepair, the taxes aren’t really worth it and neighborhoods change and people don’t want to live in the same place, and many city people moved to the suburbs in the 40s-50s. Not everyone set down roots either, and the east coast was colonized about 200 years before the west coast so it is different depending on where in the US it was developed.
Native American return to dwellings that their ancestors occupied as part of sacred ritual.
In my family? No.
A very large number of Americans are 21st century families who immigrated close to and after 1900. And most of this people who came were too poor to afford a home they could even pass down.
In NC and VA I know people with ancestral homes. They are rural farmers. Over the generations they have had to sell off some land.
The ultra rich from the 1800’s built homes that remain in the families. Like Rockefeller, Carnegie, etc. Also old money that wasn’t ultra rich have passed down ancestral homes.
Some of the historical homes ended up as museums. I live near many museum houses but they are truly all over America.