Korean Families

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Three newly married couples standing in front of the Korean Methodist Church in San Francisco.

Picture Brides

The ratio of Korean men and women in the United States was 6 to 1, so many Korean men used the picture bride system to get a wife. The picture bride system was a matchmaking system which Korean men in America would find a bride in Korea by exchanging pictures and letters. From 1910 to 1920, over 1,000 Korean women chose this path of going to the U.S. and marrying a man. A small group of the Korean picture brides included brides as young as eighteen and nineteen year olds.

"Mrs. K.": Oral History of a Picture Bride by Alice Y. Chai

Click the link below to read a document on an interview of Mrs. K, who was a picture bride in 1920s.

Documented Interview of "Mrs. K" by Alice Y. Chai

Korean Families Throughout 1910-1940s

Choon Ho and Mary Do Lim family, 1910s.

Choon Young Chung family, 1912.

Soon Myung and Kim Soon Nam family, 1918.

Rev. Sa Sun Tai Sun Chang Whang and Children

Rev. Sa Sun and Tai Sun Chang Whang and Children, 1920.

Dai Soon and Soo Nam Char Lee family, 1923.

Kook Kyung and Emma Cho Kim family, 1935.

Some Korean families, such as the Dai Soon and Soo Nam Char Lee family, decided to go back to Korea. The Dai Soon and Soo Nam Char Lee family bought business properties in Korea with their hard earned money in the United States so that they can live in Korea.