Beams yes. Different beams have names. Joists are the beams that hold up your floor. So yeah... The joists were broke.
haven't you been working on that place for like 4 years?
The previous owner thought he was the shit when it came to remodeling, they notched out several of them, and knocked down a basement wall. Put that with the original part of the house being built in the 1820s over a dirt floor basement, then put 4 floor finishes on top of it (pine, pine, underlayment, carpet) and they will break.
ughhhhhhhhh how big were the notches?
More than one half the vertical width (4 inches in rough sawn 2x8s).