The History of matchmaking
Matchmaking has a history that dates back as far as almost 4,000 years ago in cultures where the tradition was that the elders or parents or some other third party believed that the decision to marry was too important to be left to the bride and groom.
Later in our history marriages were also prearranged to consolidate family money or power or for political reasons between countries to seal alliances. Matchmakers were available to help arrange marriages for all of the reasons except for the true reasons that marriage should occur; love and friendship and a beautiful relationship where both parties connect in all of the important areas.
It was a longer process
Matchmaking also occurred in many countries a couple of hundred years before the computer when Mail-Order Bride catalogs became common and featured photos and brief “profiles” of individuals who were available for marriage. If a person found someone of interest then the correspondence began via messages sent via “snail” mail that would take weeks or months to arrive to the recipients. If there was interest in the person who sent the message then a return letter was entered into the current mail system and would be received weeks or months later.
Thus began the correspondence between two people and eventually agreement would be reached and one of the partners would get on a ship or a train or a covered wagon and the two would finally meet and marry. Sounds incredibly slow based on today’s pace of life but it worked and many marriages occurred in this manner.
Matchmaking evolves
Matchmaking has endured over our history and has certainly evolved and still serves a large portion of the singles and dating and marriage marketplace. However, today the individual participants in the marriage-to-be play a much greater role and have more influence in the selection of potential partners.
Some matchmakers function completely independent of the online dating community and some offer something of a hybrid approach where they have an online presence with a large database of potential suitors. Either way they collect as much information as possible about individuals in database via questionnaires so they can present options to a new client based on their preferences. They then offer potential partners culled from the database and the client can choose from a number of options.
Many online dating sites have algorithms in the site that learn preferences based on activity when reviewing various profiles. Over time, the algorithms become more accurate to help you find your marriage partner.
LatinConexiones.com makes use of some of the basic matching capabilities to present possible matches for our users. But we prefer some of the “old” ways of building relationships. We believe that some of the greatest emotions a person can have is to meet new people, make new friends, create new relationships and find love. We believe that there is no greater joy that two people can have among themselves to work together to build a wonderful relationship if it translates into a great friendship or a complete and everlasting love.
We also believe that well after the marriage ceremony the two will spend many moments together reflecting on the memories they built during the early days of the discovery phase of their relationship. We do not wish to interfere with the creation of those wonderful moments.
We are also well aware that the Hispanic cultures have held onto some of the most positive qualities of their social and family relationships as we have learned to depend upon on our most trusted friends and family members for their thoughts and opinions. We have found that many members will seek the opinions of their trusted confidants and ask them to join the LatinConexiones site to review the profile of their new interest and offer their opinions and guidance.
We are also aware that many of our members will meet many other members and they may discover a person or a new friend whom they think would be ideal for a family member or close friend. To that extent we know that many of our members will do matchmaking and we are happy to be able to offer that opportunity.
