All of our records, tombstones, census, word of mouth indicate Owen was born in Roundstone, County Galway in 1823, 1825, or 1828 (Tombstone indicates 1823, his statement to the Circuit Court for citizenship in 1857 indicates 1828, and two other sources state 1825). He married Mary Malley (O’Malley, and Gaelic...Melia) of Callacoon townland, County Mayo, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Clifden, County Galway on November 11th, 1848. The witnesses (who were traditionally relatives) were Valentine King and Brigid Canavan. Their first born, Bridget, was baptized in the same church on October 24, 1849 and the witnesses were Val Malley and Honor Riley.
Owen and his two brothers were part of the crew on one of the immigrant ships. That’s how they paid for their passage to the U.S. Owen and Patrick stayed but the other brother eventually went on to Australia. If that is true, they came into the port of Boston because, according to census data, Patrick’s first 2 children were born in Massachusetts, the 2nd two in Pennsylvania, and the rest in West Virginia.
Owen’s statement when he applied for citizenship in the Fall of 1857 reads, “Owen Riley, an alien, who has lately arrived in the United States and is desirous of being naturalized a citizen of, this day appears in court, and in pursuance of the Act of Congress, made a report of himself, which is in these words: I, Owen Riley, make the following report of myself to the Circuit Court of Randolph County in the State of Virginia that is to say: I report that I was born in the Kingdom of Ireland and in the County of Galway, and am now 29 years old, that I am a subject of the Queen of England, owing allegiance to that monarch and none other; that I migrated from Ireland to the United States in January 1851, and that I have settled myself in the County of Randolph in the state of Virginia, one of the United States.”
We know by census records that he settled in Kingsville, in the Roaring Creek Census area. His wife Mary came 2 years later and daughter Bridget came when she was 20 years old. Both are part of the 1870 Census.
