The word prompt for the 10th Edition of Smile For The Camera is Costume? No, not as in Halloween. Costume as in dress in general; especially the distinctive style of dress of a people, class, or period.

The George Charley Cooper and Sarah “Sally” Duvall Cooper family

outside of Lubbock, Lubbock County, Texas

1929

The quality of this family snapshot is not good enough to enlarge much.  But you can see bobbed hair and general styles of dress that date this photo.   I love that all 3 men in this informal family photo are all wearing suits.  The women have white stockings and high-cut shoes.  What really dates this photo, though, is that my grandmother, the first female standing on the right, is obviously pregnant.  When I checked the others in the picture (two of these siblings died in 1931 and Dec 1929), I determined that it was my dad that she was carrying.  He was born in September 1929.  He was my grandmother’s 7th child, so she’d mastered maternity clothes, I’m sure, and I’m also sure she made the outfit she’s wearing.  It looks like a long coat over a 2 piece outfit.  I’m so glad my great-aunt Margaret Cooper Crabtree shared the photo with me.

I’ve posted this picture for the 4th Carnival of Genealogy in which we were to choose a favorite photo.  And I posted it and a companion photo in an even earlier post.  Could be that I’m a little obsessed with these photos.

The guy on the left is my paternal grandfather, Thaddeus Morrison Osborne (1888 TX – 1982 TX).   One of my nephews looks like him in this picture.  You can see at the bottom of the picture someone has written “T.M.O.”–I don’t know who was the identifier, but I do know my dad’s cousin gave me this picture.  Her mother was T.M.O.’s sister.

But the question is, who is the other guy?

And what about the “other guy” in this one?

I don’t think they are the same person with Granddad in each photo, but who are they?  And what got my grandfather to a studio to have these pictures taken?  (I’ve also written about how I have copies of studio pictures of all of his siblings, even of his father, but no such photo of him.)

I really want to know.  Who are the other two guys in these photos?  At the bottom of that question, of course, is another quest–I think I am hoping if I know who they are, I’ll know more about my granddad.

• The word prompt for the 7th Edition of Smile For The Camera is Oh, Baby! Show us those wonderful family photographs of babies, or those you’ve collected. Share the ones that are too cute for words, or those only a mother could love. Your favorite of grandma or grandmas’ favorite. Grandpa on a bear skin rug or grandpas’ little love. Everyone has a baby photo, so let’s see it!  Choose a photograph of an ancestor, relative, yourself, or an orphan photograph that is the epitome of Oh, Baby! and bring it to the carnival. Admission is free with every photograph!

Here are my entries:

A contemporary baby in our family, with her my mother-in-law, her great-grandmother.

Gram Lillian Hagar Spindle and great-granddaughter Brooklyn.

….and a slightly older baby–me.

In the only two-piece you’ll ever see me in, at my grandparents’ home in South Dakota.