Hanora Doil/Doile/Dihle/Doyle (Exact spelling is unknown) left her homeland in Ireland during the terrible potato famine there to come to American early in 1848 with her sister(s) and a brother-in-law (names unknown). During the voyage the brother-in-law became ill, died, and was buried at sea. While going through customs in New York City, she became separated from her sister(s) never to see them again. Only sixteen years old, unable to read or write, and with no money, she was standing on a street corner frightened and crying, when she was spotted by a kindly Irish policeman who took her to his home where she remained until she could find work as a maid. She met a boy she had known in Ireland (Patrick Donley) who had arrived in New York in 1847. The couple were married February 15, l851 in the Church of the Nativity in New York by a Father Richard Kern, Catholic Priest. Both signed their names with an "X". Patrick's sister, Ann Wasser, verified his marriage to "Hannora Doile" on a document filed in 1888.At that time, Ann lived at Hund Station, Leavenworth, Kansas. R. J. Wasser witnessed the document. It is not known if R. J. was husband or son to Ann. The young people joined a crew building the American railroad from Pennsylvania to the West in the new country. Mrs. Annie May Donley May verified this in a visit with Lowell Donley at a nursing home in Hobart, Oklahoma, in 1993 when she was a resident there and was 98 years old. Her memory was quite good, and she verified the story of Hanora's arrival and marriage in America and the trip West. In 1860, the Donleys lived in Warrensburg, Missouri, and appeared on the census there. At that time five children had been born.Other descendants verify that Patrick joined Captain Fosters' Company of the Missouri Mounted Infantry Regiment of Volunteers, a militia unit there in June of 1861. He went into the regular Union Army in 1862 and served until his discharge April 30, 1865, at Little Rock, Arkansas. During Patrick's Civil War service, a sixth child, Patrick was born in Warrensburg, Missouri, February 13, 1864*. For two years during her husband's war service Hanora did not know if he were dead or alive and she was forced to take in washing, and also worked as a cook to support the young family. The father, Patrick, did not see his namesake, Patrick, until after the war ended. When Patrick was discharged, he used his back pay ($100) to buy wagons and tools to be a contractor for the railroad, hiring his own crew. The railroad work brought them through Indiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Missouri, and Kansas, with their eight children born along the way, and on to North Texas, near Gainesville, Cook County, Texas, where they joined the Catholic Church there. A son, James, was born there in 1868 and died when he was two years old. He was buried at Myra, Texas near Gainesville. In 1870 Patrick bought a farm in Montague County, Texas, seven miles North of Bonita. They lived there the remainder of their lives. She died October 4, 1908, and is buried beside her husband Patrick in Union Cemetery in Montague County, Texas. Family legend says Patrick donated the land for Union Cemetery. Her death certificate is recorded in Vol. 1, #79, (1902-17) Montague County, Texas court records. Cause of death was listed as heart failure-asthmatic bronchitis. She was typically Irish, with fair skin, and flaming red hair, and was devoutly Catholic.