History Notes - where was Cohen's shop?

12th July 2022

History Notes

Another busy week with requests for help with family history.  There has been a correction in family history over one hundred years ago but it turns out that the records are correct but the person concerned did not wish to use the correct name on official records!  It all adds to the interest in family history.

Does anyone know where Cohen’s shop was in Barraba in the 1950’s?  The person making the enquiry says that it was an electrical shop and it was not here for very long.  I am wondering if it had anything to do with the power lines being built throughout the district but that does not help with the position in the main street.

On Sunday we had a visit from a descendant of Bernard Hagan’s who lived in Narrabri.  This family included the McGovern family from the Horton Valley and we learnt a bit about the family as well as our visitors.  They are now travelling through the Horton village to Rocky Creek and on to Narrabri.

Another request for information has come in this week for the Potter family.  This fellow wants to come down when he returns from his holiday in Queensland so we have a bit of time to get ready – fortunately this is a family we already have on file so there will not need to be much research there, apart from one elusive ancestor who doesn’t seem to have any parentage or date of birth.  We know she married in 1863 and that she was buried in Barraba in 1909 with no age given.  There were nine children in the family and most of them were born on Connor’s Creek.

Actually, it was one of the Potter daughters worked at the Victoria Hotel when it was the Commercial Bank.  One night in 1894 she saw a ghost roaming around the premises and she was so frightened that she left the next day.  A few days after that, the fatal bank robbery took place.

There is plenty of interest in Maurie Conway’s book and it looks like being a while before it comes together as new information keeps coming in both from the original author and those who are proof reading and adding pieces.