Social dance,especially in frontier North America,the contra dance and square dance, has also been employed in matchmaking, usually informally. However,when farming families were widely separated and kept all children on the farm working,marriage-age children could often only meet in church or in such mandated social events. Matchmakers,acting as formal chaperones or as self-employed 'busybodies' serving less clear social purposes' would attend such events and advise families of any burgeoning romances before they went too far.