I encountered a similar situation with a marriage record. My wife's grandmother, from Nagy Turjajog in subcarpathia. came to NYC in 1905. Her husband was from a town near Serednye and came to the US in 1900. They met in NYC and they were married in NYC in 1907. I have their marriage certificate.

Yet, in researching in the old country records I found a record of their marriage (it was definitely them, no errors) in the Serednye synagogue records dated about 6 months before the NYC marriage and long after she had left Hungary (it was Hungary then) and long after she had arrived in NYC.

I never resolved that mystery. It was not a record of 'engagement' but of a marriage that had not yet happened in the US. I do not think they had even met yet in the us.

Jeff Malka
Researching ORNSTEIN, RIEDERMAN