For years, I just assumed that a set of immigrant ancestors who married in Illinois in 1874 met in the United States–because it made sense. He immigrated in 1869 and she immigrated in 1873. They were born in villages 25 miles apart. Seemed logical that they met in the United States.
Later research revealed they had known each other in Germany. When she was a young girl her father had moved from the village where she was born to the village where her future husband was born. He worked on the windmills in northern Germany and was more mobile than I had originally thought.
Good to remember that people in Europe also move around as well.
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My parents were from the same small town in Lombardia — Cuggiono — and it was also thought that their families knew each other. Her family had emigrated to the Detroit area, and they went back when Mom and her brother (twins) were about 12. My Dad remembered the brother (a kid with an attitude) from his visit, but not Mom. They met when he emigrated to the Detroit area. And she had been adamant that she would never marry an immigrant! She used to joke that not only did she marry one, but “one just off the boat” in fact! Just because they had roots in the same small town didn’t mean they had met.