Background:

Ancestry.com has just put up a name index for the 1910 census. This allows you to search the census by name. Unfortunately the results found do not give any links to the census images. So we need some means for navigating to the image.

For each person found, the ancestry results page gives the following information: state, county, political subdivision, roll number, page number, and part. But to navigate to the images on the ancestry.com site, you need to know the state, county, political subdivision, and enumeration district. Since the enumeration district is not one of the pieces of information given in the results of a search, you cannot navigate there using the ancestry site.

The page number given in the ancestry results is not the sheet number that is handwritten at the top right of the page. Instead the page number is a number that is stamped at the top center of every other page. The page having the number is considered the A page and the following page is the B page. For example, the page stamped 114 is referred to as 114A and the following (unstamped) page is referred to as 114B.  A roll consists of several parts, with each part having stamped pages starting from 1.  The number of parts per roll is usually three, and the last stamped page number is usually around 300.
 

Procedure

Since the ancestry.com site does not provide any means for navigating to the census image, we need to use an alternate site to do so. The one-step website provides the necessary means of navigating to the census image. Here’s how you would use it:

1. Do the name search on ancestry and note the state, roll number, page number, and part

2. Go to http://www.stevemorse.org/census/reelframes.html

3. Select 1910 for the year at the top of the page

4. Select the appropriate state and roll near the top of the page

5. Compute the frame number from the page number and part as follows:

     Start with page number
     If part is 2, add 300; if part is 3 then add 600, etc.
     Multiply by 2

6. Enter the frame number on the line that says “Absolute Frames on Roll”

7. Click the display button on that same line

If you have an ancestry.com subscription, you will now see a census image. To see how close you are to the image you want, look at the stamped number at the top of the page (if there is no stamped number, go to the next or previous page) and compare it to the page number you want. Then go forward or backward the appropriate number of frames to get to the page you want.

For searches in other than part 1, you need to jump over the preceding parts of the roll.  That is why we added 300 for part 2, 600 for part 3, etc. However this might be too large (gets you beyond the last frame on the roll) or too small (leaves you in a previous part), so you might have to experiment a bit to get into the part you want.