This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/3dB.2ACI/6174.1.1 Message Board Post: Hi Nicole, Thank you for the new line of thought on this matter. That would not have occurred to me. I really thought that pre-arranged marriages were done only among people with strong and close ethnic ties. My mother did not appear to have any ethnicity about her, except perhaps a way of saying a few words that some say resembled German. Do you know if it was a Dutch or PA Dutch custom to arrange marriages? Angie