Census Sunday- Jessie Sample

My paternal great grandfather and great grandmother Joseph and Celia Sample lived in Lincoln Parish Louisiana in 1880. 



Sample,  Joseph H. age 31-farmer

              Celie E. age 20-Keeping House

              Mary E. age 5-daughter

              Lucinda age 4-daughter

              Dora C. 7 months-daughter



Living with them was a 23 year old black male whose relationship to the head of the household was listed as Servant.

Because Celia is one of my brick wall ancestors I am at the point where I need to start visiting some repositories in Arkansas  to find more information.  Because of that and because I have not done much African-American research I decided to see if I could find out anything about Jessie.

The indexers with Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org both entered Jessie’s last name as Sample, and looking at the record it does fit the pattern most indexers used to avoid having to write the same name multiple times.  I find it doubtful that that was his actual name, but looked into it as if it was. Then I looked into African-American men named Jessie, last name unknown. 

The information I have on Jessie from the census, assuming it is accurate:

1. He was 23 in 1880
2. He was a farmhand
3. He was born in Louisiana
4. His parents were born in Louisiana
5. He could not read or write
6. The category for Married/Single/Widowed was left blank

I have searched the census in Lincoln Parish for an African-American Sample family. I have also searched for an African-American resident of the area in 1860 and 1900 but so far have not come up with anyone that really fits the criteria listed above.

I have not done much African-American genealogy, but hopefully I can find something on this person.  This may turn out to be one of those unanswerable questions that curiosity drives me to look into.  At the very least, I will learn a little about African-American research in Louisiana and about some additional sources that I am not currently aware of.