by Ted Sherman

Created on: June 27, 2009   Last Updated: June 28, 2009

There are several thousand commercial matchmakers in the US who advertise in periodicals and on the Internet. About 40 of them belong to the Matchmaking Institute, which in addition to providing matchmaking services, offers information about the business and monitors other matchmakers. According to the Institute, most members operate in metropolitan and suburb areas of New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Tampa-St. Pete. For more general information, go to www.matchmakinginstitute.com

To subscribe to a matchmaker service, there's usually an upfront payment you must submit with personal information and a photo and/or DVD. The fee can range from $50 for a one-time match-up service, to the price the Institute charges of $250 for a full year of a dozen or more introductions. The Institute also advertises that it chooses the most ethical agencies and services to find the best matchmaking opportunities for its individual clients.

Is subscribing to a matchmaking service worthwhile? In these days of online dating agencies, both free and fee, it would seem a person wouldn't need to hire a personal service to find a match. Additionally, with all the electronic advances in communications on the Internet, campus, concert, bar scene and beyond, a capable single can come up with almost unlimited opportunities to meet new people.

However, there may be circumstances when hiring a matchmaker could be a practical and necessary move. For instance, if you're newly-arrived in a city and are beginning an important new job, you may want your search for companionship to be totally confidential.

It could be possible you don't want to go through the exposure of making random Internet dating arrangements. You'd prefer to have an expert representative who knows your background, education, religion, vocation and all other personal choices. You want that matchmaker to work with you in total confidentiality to gather and screen potential candidates.

Another circumstance for hiring a matchmaker is that you're already in a relationship or are trying to end one, and don't want the fact known that you're seeking to begin another one. That's where the matchmaking service can keep the search totally secret, and protect your privacy and, in some circumstances, your bank account.

Just two or three generations ago, young people had no choice about hiring matchmakers. In America and many European countries, matchmaking was a thriving business. Parents hired them to find suitable brides and grooms for their children. When a match was made, the children seldom had any choice in the selection of their future mates. They could only wish their parents' choices would be good ones.

In the famed Broadway musical, Fiddler on the Roof, the father had five daughters, and when the talk of marriage came up, the young women could only hope the matchmaker would be efficient in the selection of their future husbands. The song told of their feelings: Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find, catch me a catch. Night after night in the dark I'm alone, so find me match of my own.

Of course, old-fashioned matchmaking is still a thriving business in some parts of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Now, with the help of the Internet and other advances in communications, there are also thriving commercial matchmaking services in the U.S.

However, there are still those beloved family amateur matchmakers practicing their trade. Aunt Tillie may happen to know many single women in her church choir, and is working hard to introduce some of them to her timid nephew Willie.

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