You may have made conclusions about mail-order brides from the old-fashioned anomaly of the Victorian era, but here are some facts from the Smithsonian Institute’s historical letters about these brides who risked it all to marry a stranger.

During the latter part of the 19^th and the early 20^th century, men and women sought each other out for marriage. Unlike today’s internet connection for dating, there were reasons behind this style of “courtship.”

After the Civil War, many young men averaging around 28 years old returned home with little or no prospects for marriage. Some were wounded but still wanted to have a family.

Other men were lured by the discovery of gold and other mining opportunities in California and found themselves without the companionship of “civilized” women.

Territories offered women autonomy because society expected a woman to be supported by a man, whether a father, brother, or husband. When a woman was widowed and sometimes with children, there were opportunities to marry and still be able to file for divorce if the marriage didn’t work out. The law of many states did not allow a woman to file for a divorce.

Very often women from Europe came to the United States to escape oppression by a conquering country or a war where many men were killed and there was no opportunity to marry.

On the West Coast, many women came from Japan. Men of their own culture often selected these “picture” brides for a marital partner.

The term “mail-order bride” was coined by newspaper reporters. Couples interested in marriage corresponded beforehand to see if they were compatible. Requesting a bride through correspondence was an old-fashioned nod to today’s internet dating. A personal ad would end with the statement “object matrimony” followed by an address.

The prospective husband would pay for a woman’s travel expenses to where he lived.

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Looking for some good fictional reading about mail-order brides, I recommend these books which can be found on Amazon:

“But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16 (NIV)