What exactly is contexting when it comes to genealogy and what makes it an important part of your research? Contexting is the process of putting your research in the proper.. yes.. you guessed it.. context..

What contexting really means and what it involves is that you as the researcher understand what was taking place in the nation during the time span that you are researching. For instance, if your research was taking place during the civil war, it would involve you understanding that for much of the west, it didn’t matter a great deal, but for states like Pennsylvania, Virginia and Georgia, it meant a vast upheaval and a loss of a great deal of records, information and life.

Contexting means taking into account what was happening in that state, the city or the county that you are researching and knowing how that might have impacted what you’re trying to find.

Contexting means knowing also the particular prejudices that were impacting the country at that time. For instance in Russia, finding an ancestor during the time of the revolutions might have been impacted by what was taking place at that time. Particularly if your ancestore was part of the Russian aristocracy, you will find it difficult to find records of them quite likely. Knowing whether they were killed or whether some migration took place as well as the places they may have migrated to will make your work easier in the long run, and may in fact make it possible.

Contexting will also include knowing about and understanding the many groups and organizations that might have or would have interacted with your ancestor to make their travels easier to accomplish or their escape to somewhere else possible.
Those societies might have included churches or religious groups, political activists, or ethnic societies, such as in the case of the slaves, the Underground railroad may well have interacted with your ancestor on some level and you may find records of some type which have been unearthed from this group of people.

Contexting also involves one last process, which is that of learning or at least learning ABOUT and understanding the laws, and regulations, as they pertain to your own ancestor, their ethnic group or their place of residence. This may mean knowing that in the area where your parents lived, your father and mother could not marry under the law because the two were not of the same race or color. Those codes or laws may well have a lot to do with your ancestors moving around as well as where you will find those records about your ancestors.

You can see where contexting is an important part of researching any group or family, in that it will give you valuable insight into the best places to find records to solve the mysteries that you are trying to solve.