Shaffrey's On Family Search

Recently, I hoped on http://www.familysearch.org/.  I entered the last name of Shaffrey and came up with just over 7,000 "hits" in their search engine.  The Family Search site includes various records for census, birth, marriage, death, probate, military, and immigration that span worldwide but mostly in the USA, parts of Europe and Australia.

To find this limited number of results for the last name of Shaffrey indicates to me just how uncommon this surname really is.  When I narrowed my search to just birth, marriage, and death records, I ended up with just over 4100 "hits".  I clicked on just Ireland births and baptisms 1620-1881 and found 733 results.  With some luck, I was hoping that I was getting somewhere.  I know that my Shaffrey search needs to start/continue from starting mid 1700s until maybe 1854.  I've struggled with where to go with this search.

In the 1840s through 1855, I find virtually nothing online for Shaffrey's under births and baptisms for Ireland.  Under marriages, I find a Catherine Shaffrey (b. 1841) marrying John Farrelly on 22 Jan 1865 in Navan, Meath, Ireland.  Her father was William Shaffrey.  Her mother is not listed.  I also find a Ellen Shafray (b. 1845) marrying John Smith on 21 May 1864 in Navan, Meath, Ireland.  Her father was Thomas Shafray.

Since I know that my Shaffrey's are from in and around Moynalty, I know that I will be keeping my search to mostly County Meath at this point.   I did peek at the Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958 for the timeframe 1840-1855.  I find a few Shaffrey's living in the Kells area of Meath.  From 1800-1840, I only find a few people with the last name of Shaffrey in the Kells area under the Ireland Civil Registration.  If I try to go back further, I don't feel as confident about the location of my Shaffrey's.  Needless to say, I am feeling the "dead end" again on this front.

There is that LDS Film though which may be for my Maxwell's but may have more information on it for the Parish of Moynalty.  I may need to fetch that to push further back in time.