1. A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory having instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to implement an ingestion engine for ingesting natural language textual content, the method comprising: initiating, by the ingestion engine, ingestion of natural language textual content; identifying, by the ingestion engine, an embedded structured data portion within the natural language textual content; generating, by the ingestion engine, a signature of the structured data portion, wherein the signature comprises one or more metadata elements describing the configuration or content of the structured data portion; identifying, by the ingestion engine, references to the structured data portion in natural language text portions of the natural language textual content; evaluating, by the ingestion engine, the references based on the signature of the structured data portion; generating, by the ingestion engine, an ingestion prioritization plan for ingesting a set of facts associated with a set of elements of the structured data portion based on results of the evaluation; and applying, by the ingestion engine, the ingestion prioritization plan to generate the set of facts and store the set of facts in an ingested representation of the natural language textual content.