Hi Mary,
Thank you for your message.
There is a Lisbegney townland in the civil parish of Abbeyleix, in Co. Laois. There is a Lisbeg townland in Clonfert parish, CO. Galway. A useful website when it comes to Irish place names is http://www.logainm.ie/
Civil registration did not become mandatory in Ireland until 1864, as a result births, marriages, deaths were recorded by the local parish church prior to this. If the Murphy?s and Bowes were based in Ballinakill for a long time you should be able to find record of the family in those church records.
Most Catholic records are held locally so you may need to write to the local parish priest for possible assistance. One website that you may find useful is the Irish Times where they give an overview of what records are available in specific parishes. For Ballinakill parish, follow this link:
http://www.irishtimes.com/ancestor/fuses/rcparishmaps/index.cfm?fuseaction=showidrecords&CityCounty=East%20Galway&parish=Ballinakill-EastGalway&churchid=321
You can also see from this link where copies of these records are available.
Most surviving Church of Ireland records are still held by the local clergy, although some are in the National Archives of Ireland and others are in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. Here are their websites: http://www.nationalarchives.ie/ and http://ireland.anglican.org/about/42
Lists of these surviving registers can also be found at the National Library of Ireland.
From 1864 onwards, BMDs were also recorded in civil records. You may be able to find record of Jane and John?s siblings if any. Civil records are available from the General Register?s Office in Dublin. Here is their website:
http://www.groireland.ie/research.htm
You can search the indexes to these records online at:
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1408347
Have you tried looking in the 1901/1911 census records to see if there were any family still in the area at the time? You can search these here: http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/search/
Some other websites that you may find useful are:
The National Archives of Ireland http://www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy1/genealogy-records/introduction/
The National Library of Ireland http://www.nli.ie/en/family-history-introduction.aspx
Family Search: www.familysearch.org
Genealogy Links: http://www.genealogylinks.net/uk/ireland/galway/index.html
I hope that some of this is helpful. Please be patient - as our programme has only begun to rollout across the island of Ireland and volunteers in some areas may not yet be organized.
Kind regards,
Genealogy Support
