Today deeds are recorded fairly soon after their execution. That was not the case in the 19th century and before. It was not uncommon for deeds to be recorded several months or longer after they were signed. The risk a person took is in losing the deed before it was recorded as the recorded copy serves as the legal equivalent of the original if it is lost. Deeds that are recorded decades after the fact were frequently recorded then because the purchaser wanted to sell the property or had died and the heirs realized the deed had never been recorded.
And remember that deeds are recorded in the order in which they are brought to the records office, not the order in which they were executed.
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