This month, I am working with my Tierney family, who are of Carleton County, Ontario, specifically Nepean, which is now part of the Municipality of Ottawa. John Tierney and Ann Murray had a large family of eleven known children. The youngest, Mary Martha (1857-1950) entered the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns of Ottawa) at the young age of 16 years, 5 months on 24 December 1874. Three years later, she made her profession on 13 December 1877.[1] She was known as Sister St. Melanie.
I have written about her before: Spirit – Mary Martha Tierney & her Spiritual Connection to God as Sister St. Melanie.
After reading Sunny Jane Morton’s book, Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States (Genealogical Publishing, 2026), I have not been able to put her out of my mind. My cousin was named after her, and I took Melanie as my confirmation name. So, I feel a connection to her.
I have a photograph of her as well as a couple of
obituaries, which can help with creating a timeline.
Sisters and nuns are
difficult to research in traditional genealogical resources because one never
knows how they will be recorded. An example, I found her in the 1881 Canada
census in Ottawa as “Soeur Tierney” or Sister Tierney in among many other
sisters at the Sisters of Charity. Soeur Phelan was the mother superior.[2]
I checked the entry for the Sisters of Charity in 1891, but she was not listed
with Mother Superior Phelan. In fact, the listing was so much smaller, that
many of the sisters from 1881 must have been sent to other places.[3]
Let’s look at the obituaries and see if that can help create a timeline to suggest further research. She died on 19 February 1950 at Ogdensburg, New York. Here is the first obituary.
"Sister St.
Melanie Funeral Services Conducted Today,"
Funeral services for Sister
St. Melanie, the former Miss Mary Martha Tierney, of Nepean, Ont., were held
today at 7:30 a.m. from St. John's Hospital and at 8 a.m. from St. Joseph's
chapel.
A solemn High Mass of Requiem was celebrated by Very Rev. Msgr. James T. Lyng, assisted by Rev. Joseph Luker, as decon [sic], and Rev. John Weir as sub-deacon. Children's Choir of St. Joseph's sang the responses. Serving as bearers were Harry Barbour, Stephen Putney, Ralph Lalonde, and Arthur LaRue.
The body was placed in the receiving vault at St. Mary's Cemetery, pending burial there in the Spring. Sister St. Melanie died Sunday at St. John's Hospital where she had been a patient for some time. She was formerly Sister Superior of that hospital.[4]
The start of the timeline
1950-02-21 Funeral from St. John’s Hospital & St. Joseph’s Chapel
1950-02-19 Sister
St. Melanie died at St. John’s Hospital.
The next article has more details about her life:
"Former Sister Superior of St. John Dead,"
Sister St. Melanie, the former
Miss Mary Martha Tierney of Nepean, Ont., died at 10 p.m. yesterday (Feb. 19,
1950) at St. John's Hospital where she had been a patient for sometime.
Born July 7, 1858 in Nepean,
she was the daughter of the late John and Ann Murray Tierney, natives of
Ireland. At the age of 19, she entered the novitiate of the Grey Nuns in
Ottawa, Ont., on Dec. 13, 1877. After preparing for teaching, Sister Melanie
taught in the old grade school at St. Mary's Academy in this city.
After being transferred to
Buffalo, the nun taught in Holy Angels Academy for many years, later teaching
in the Immaculate Conception High School at Lowell, Mass.
In 1917, Sister Melanie
returned to Ogdensburg and was appointed superior of the St. John's Hospital,
which appointment she held until 1929 when St. John's was incorporated as St.
Lawrence County Tuberculosis Sanatorium.
When Sister Melanie first
came to St. John's Hospital, the nuns had no chaplain. Consequently, she drove
a team of horses to Notre Dame Church where the Sisters attended Mass. At that
time, St. John's was both a hospital and a farm, the hospital to care for the
ill, and a farm to supply the patients and the children of St. Joseph's
orphanage with milk and vegetables. Sister Melanie put in a full day's work on
the arm, in addition to her nursing duties.
During the time Sister
Melanie was in charge of St. John's, she made many friends both in the city and
the Black Lake Rd. vicinity. St. John's was then the only institution in this
section of the country which cared for contagious diseases when virulent
epidemics were prevalent.
The following nieces survive Sister Melanie: Mrs. E.M. Moore and Mrs. Ethel Devine, both of Ottawa; Marie Tierney of Oakland, Calif., and Miss Hannah McKenna, Ottawa. The latter two are grand nieces of the deceased.[5]
More research can fill in some of the gaps. She is enumerated in the 1910 Middlesex Co, Massachusetts, census in Lowell City, as Sister Melanie. Sister Mary Angela was the superior.[6] The 1910 Lowell city directory listing for Immaculate Conception Convent listed Sister Angela as superior.[7] Under the sisters’ listing, only those sisters who were superiors were in the directory.
A newspaper article from Plattsburgh, New York, listed Sister Melanie and Sister Erysbuasia of the D’Youville Academy were recent “visitors at the school.” They were also listed as staying at The Registry.[8] The Grey Nuns of the Cross founded Holy Angels Academy and D’Youville College. In 1921, The Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart were established as a new English-speaking congregation.[9]
A letter from the archivist at the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart mother house in Yardley, Pennsylvania, answered more questions. She sent a summary that had been created for a niece, Muriel Erdahl. In it, I learned that she was hard of hearing and later was totally deaf, but she “kept abreast of current Catholic news by reading Catholic periodicals.” Another sister said, “Not a day passed that sister did not follow the Way of the Cross; in her later years, it became a norming and a late afternoon spiritual exercise.”[10]
Below is an expanded timeline with information I have been able to gather. There are still gaps and missing details. I had contacted the Grey Nuns of Ottawa, but they didn’t seem to keep up with what assignments she did once in the United States, and suggested contacting the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. This change in the order has helped create these gaps as well.
Expanded Timeline
1950-02-21 Funeral from St. John’s Hospital & St. Joseph’s Chapel
1950-02-19 Sister
St. Melanie died at St. John’s Hospital.
1946 Moved
to St. John’s Hospital, a convalescent home.[11]
1940 Buffalo,
NY, D’Youville College, retired teacher[12]
1929-???? Retired?
1921 Joined
the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart
1917-1929 Superior of the St. John’s Hospital in Ogdensburg, NY
???? Taught
at Immaculate Conception H.S. in Lowell, MA
???? Taught
at Holy Angels Academy in Buffalo
1881 Living
in Ottawa with the Sisters of Charity
1879-???? Taught school at St. Mary’s Academy in Ottawa
1877-12-13 Entered
the novitiate of the Grey Nuns in Ottawa
1871 Living
with parents in Nepean
1861 Living
with parents in Nepean
1857-07-07 Born in Nepean (Ontario)[13]
Conclusion
Sister St. Melanie Tierney, my 2x-great-grandaunt, stays
with me whenever I think of the Rosary or the Stations of the Cross. Someday, I
may locate her in more records and fill in her timeline more completely.
#52Ancestors: Week 25 – The Ancestor Who Stays With Me
This is my ninth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
[1] Letter
from Sister Mary Charlotte Barton, archivist, Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart,
Yardley, Pennsylvania to author, dated 1 Jun 2005. Info came from a data sheet
prepared 31 Aug 1987 for her niece, Muriel A. Erdahl.
[2] Census
of Canada, 1881, Ottawa City, Ontario, Dist. 105, E. Ottawa Ward, Div. No. 2, p.
87-93, house 347, family 392, Soeur Phelan, Superior Mother, p. 91, Soeur
Tierney; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/1577/records/2592405
: accessed 17 Jun 2026) > Ontario > Ottawa City > Ottawa Ward >
image 104 of 135, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
[3]
Census of Canada, 1891, Ottawa City, Ontario, Dist. No. 103, subdivision B
Davison No. 1, p. 17-19, fam. 83, Sister M.J. Phelan; imaged, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1274/images/30953_148161-00311
: accessed 17 Jun 2026) > Ontario > Ottawa City > Ottawa Ward >
image 9 of 163, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.
[4] "Sister
St. Melanie Funeral Services Conducted Today," Ogdensburg (New York) Journal, 21 Feb 1950, p. 2, col. 3, imaged, NYS Historic Newspapers (http://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org/).
[5]
"Former sister Superior of St. John
Dead," p.3, Ogdensburg (New York)
Journal, imaged, NYS Historic
Newspapers (http://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org/).
[6]
1910 U.S. census, Middlesex Co, Massachusetts, ED 878, sht 9b, dwelling 130,
family 167, Sister Mary Angela.
[7] Lowell
Directory 1910 (Sampson & Murdock Co, 1910), 346, Immaculate Conception
Convent, imaged, “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/9755734
: accessed 17 Jun 2026).
[8] “Notes
and Personals,” Plattsburg (NY) Daily Press, 16 Aug 1897, p. 4, col. 3
& 4.
[9] “D’Youville
College—Now a University,” Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart (https://www.greynun.org/2022/03/dyouville-college-now-a-university/
: accessed 17 Jun 2026).
[10] Letter,
Sister Mary Charlotte Barton, Archivist to Lisa Gorrell, 1 June 2005.
[11]
Letter, Sister Mary Charlotte Barton, Archivist to Lisa Gorrell, 1 June 2005.
[12] 1940
U.S. census, Erie Co, New York, Buffalo City, D'Youville College, ED 64-574,
sht 1a, p. 7551 (stamped), household 1, line no. 36, St. Melanie Tierney.
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