In an analysis of the love letters of 10 couples living in the nineteenth or twentieth centuries in the United States or Europe, close family members were typically mentioned early and often in the letters. Letter writers told lovers about family members and family members about lovers and reported on the process of the family acceptance of the lover. Letter writers expressed concern and caring for members of the lover’s family and were told of expressions of caring for them from members of their lover’s family. Family members would reach out to a lover, and a lover would reach out to members of the other’s family. These findings suggest the possibility that in an escalating couple relationship in some cultural contexts, the couple is not an isolated dyad. They may be connected to their families of origin and communicating that to their lover and perhaps quite possibly looking forward to a committed couple relationship in which family members of one or both of them will have a significant place. Culture intersects these matters in a number of ways, including the etiquette of what is said about one’s own and the other’s family in letter writing, cultural expectations for where married couples will live, cultural ideas about the role of male family authorities in the lives of unmarried women, and cultural expectations regarding in-law relationships and exchanges of help between married couples and their families of origin.