When Nora Kelley was born in 1854, in Ireland, her father, James Kelley, was 34 and her mother, Ellen Walsch, was 34. She married John William Branagan on 6 November 1873, in Omaha, Douglas, Nebraska, United States. They were the parents of at least 4 sons and 4 daughters. She lived in Antelope Election Precinct, Cheyenne, Nebraska, United States in 1880. She died in 1896, in Rock Springs, Sweetwater, Wyoming, United States, at the age of 42.