Comments on: Mail Order Brides~ by Janet Dean

By: AmethystAscension

AmethystAscension — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:36:20 +0000

In my previous past life I was from Southern Italy where I knew my husband for many years before we married. This was in the 70′s sometime, and my mother picked him. We were friends since we were about 7 or 8 and then when I was nineteen we married. He was only a few years older than I.

We fought sometimes and all of that, but it was a good marriage (a truly romantic one) but he was not Italian.

Since my mother was Spanish it is possible that it had some influence on him not being Italian.

Anyways, I do not believe that arranged marriages are a bad thing but you should know who you are marrying and your kid should agree.

By: Deb

Deb — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:12:16 +0000

There was a TV show on when I was a child about a ship load of “mail order brides”. I think it was called “Here Come the Brides”. Wasn’t it about that bunch of ladies brought to Washington for those men? Deb.

By: Janet Dean

Janet Dean — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 20:09:44 +0000

Hi Cathy, thanks for the interesting tidbit. I’m sure the lack of men in the East and lack of women in the West had a huge impact on why spouses were sought through the mail. The phenonmena went on for years, well into the 1900s, probably due to economics.

Janet

By: Cathy Richmond

Cathy Richmond — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:38:18 +0000

I heard historian Glenda Riley speak at the Postal Museum. She said the shortage of men due to the Civil War drove women to become Mail Order Brides.

By: Janet Dean

Janet Dean — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 12:38:19 +0000

Hi Becky, thanks for your interest in The Substitute Bride. Maybe if you ask some of your living relatives, you’ll find some fascinating stories in your own family.

Janet