Do You Know all the Borders?

For your ancestor’s residence, do you know all the political borders near their property? There may be borders at a variety of political levels and that impacts what records were created, where they are held, and even if they are extant. Were they members of a religious denomination that had ecclesiastical borders that impacted where they went to church and where those records are kept? Borders between cultures and languages are fluid, but those are good ones to know about as well–particularly how far did your ancestor have to travel before the common language(s) changed?