I may have asked this question before, in which case my apologies, but perhaps more recent lister will have more information. In my Lazarus family there was a network of intermarriages between cousins, down three generations. My grandmother, for example, the child of two Lazarus cousins, was also married to a Lazarus cousin. My grandmother's marriage, in London in 1916, has been reported to me from two disconnected sources as having been arranged. Some have suggested that family members intermarried because there were few options outside the family, but just a look through census lists and the marriage registers of the Plymouth and Exeter congregations shows that even in the mid 1850s this wasn't the case. Once the family moved out of Devon, the choices multiplied, and one can hardly argue that a young woman in 1916 London was limited to a small circle. I've wondered if the family arranged marriages to strengthen the family's businesses, also an extensive network of ties, but I have no information to back this up. Does anyone know of research material or books that touch on the role of arranged marriages in 19th century Jewish life? Any help gratefully received. Eve