Dating : What dating profiles from 100 years ago were like

By Julia Naftulin

Long before the advent of the internet and smartphones, singles looked to newspaper personal advertisements to meet their suitors.

Researchers at MyHeritage, a family-history research company, scoured their databases for the juiciest personal ads in newspapers across the country, from the Pittsburgh Press to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

These 19th and 20th century callouts offer a look into how our grandparents and great-grandparents found love and marriage long before Tinder.

They’d share their preferences with a marriage advertising agency, who would place the ads in local newspapers. Any interested readers would get in touch with the paper, which would contact the agency, then the single in question.

Much like dating app profiles of today, singles of the 1800s and 1900s shared the type of relationship they were seeking (a “husband and true companion”) and their best qualities (“business gentleman” and “believes in God”).