Religious Archives Reveal the Lives of Two Sisters

Sister of St. Joseph of Buffalo, St. Mary's School for the Deaf, circa 1880.

 

March is Women's History Month! It's time for the spotlight to shine on the ladies in our family trees. I'll be writing all month on women I've researched. I encourage all family history lovers to take the month to seek out the stories of our foremothers! They are often under-documented, but they have a lot to teach us.

 

I've just finished reading Sunny Jane Morton's new book Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States. Catholic women religious are a frequently overlooked subject of genealogical research, for many reasons, including, as Morton states in her Introduction, "They were Catholics in a culture dominated by Protestants. They were women in a culture dominated by men...They were unmarried and not mothers in a culture that defined both as near-essential for women." These reasons are amplified in many cases by the women's own reluctance to tell their stories.¹ 

I've been interested in researching Catholic religious—both men and women—since I have discovered at least four nuns, one priest, and one monk in my family lines thus far. Reading the book got me thinking about other sisters I have interacted with: those who taught at the Catholic schools I attended, those who ministered alongside priests at churches where I worshiped, and others. The women are among the more than 350,000 Catholic nuns and sisters who have served communities across the country, in hospitals, orphanages, schools, etc.² And yet their stories are seldom known.

Two sisters who entered religious life were nieces to my fourth great-grandmother Anna Maria Cailteux. Barbara Trauscht, born on 12 November 1864, in Sheldon, Wyoming Co., New York, and her sister, Mary Trauscht, born 18 June 1863 in Sheldon, joined the Sisters of St. Joseph (SSJ) in Buffalo, Erie, New York, in the late 1880s. Barbara took the name Sister Mary Scholastica while Mary took the name Sister Mary Peter Claver.³ 

I previously had success obtaining information from a SSJ Archive for my great-grandaunt Mary Jane Cassidy, who joined the Sisters of St. Joseph in Toronto in 1912.⁴ So I inquired at the nearest SSJ archive in New York to see if they might have information on the Trauscht sisters. They did.

The archivist for the Sisters of St. Joseph in Buffalo was headquartered in Clarence, New York. She provided me with photographs, newspaper clippings, and biographical info, as well as contextual information on how each woman progressed through the process of becoming a sister. 

Sadly, details were few regarding each woman's ministry in the archive's records. No information on which ministry Sister Mary Peter Claver undertook was in her file. It could have been in any one of the schools, orphanages, old age homes, or hospitals where her community ministered. While she received her habit on 15 August 1887, she did not live to make her final vows.⁵

There was more information on Sister Mary Scholastica. She taught drawing at the St. Mary's School for the Deaf in Buffalo, New York, from 1885-1890. She received the habit on 26 April 1886 and recited her final vows on 3 October 1890.⁶

Sadly, each woman's ministry was all too brief. Both died from tuberculosis: Sister Scholastica in 1890 at age 25, and Sister Mary Peter Claver in 1891 at age 28.⁷

Sister Mary Scholastica aka Barbara Trauscht.

 

Sister Scholastica's obituary, possibly published in the LeCouteulx Leader, the newspaper of St. Mary's School for the Deaf in Buffalo.

  

Sister Mary Peter Claver aka Mary Trauscht.

Sister Mary Peter Claver's obituary likely published in the St. Mary's School for the Deaf student newspaper.

On a research trip to western New York and Ontario last summer, I added a visit to the Holy Cross Cemetery in Lackawanna, Erie, New York, where the two sisters were buried. I was fortunate to find Holy Cross Cemetery burial registers on FamilySearch, which revealed a special section of the cemetery for the Sisters of St. Joseph, in Lot 129 in Section O. There was even a schematic showing where each burial was located in the section.⁸

 

Sister Mary Scholastica and Sister Mary Peter Claver's burials are noted on lines 10 and 16 in this Holy Cross Cemetery record book. 

When I visited Holy Cross Cemetery on a warm and sunny summer day, my eye was drawn to the Holy Cross Chapel, located in a tree-shaded section of the large and beautiful cemetery. All the graves in this section of Holy Cross are for burials of either priests or sisters. Their simple, pillow-style headstones form a circle around a chapel, erected in 1892. I was impressed by this beautiful arrangement of stones, noting the fitting place for each religious man or woman buried there, who had dedicated their lives to the Church. The circle—a never ending symbol of eternity—was the perfect choice of arrangement, reminding me of the "cloud of witnesses" mentioned in Hebrews:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us

while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith.

 

Rev. Peter Trauscht's headstone is third from the left in the front row.

Most of the burials in front of the chapel are for diocesan priests. It's here that the sisters' brother, Rev. Peter Trauscht, is buried. He also succumbed to tuberculosis in 1891.⁹ I found his grave rather quickly. Walking the path around the chapel, I then found both Sister Mary Scholastica and Sister Mary Peter Claver's graves within a few feet of each other, and nearly opposite their brother's grave on the other side of the chapel. It was fortunate that the sisters' birth surnames were included on their headstones, as this is not always the case. 

 

Sister Mary Scholastica's grave, center.

Sister Mary Peter Claver's grave, center, is just four stones to the right of her sister's grave.

Archives and cemetery records are just two resources where information may be available on Catholic women religious. Morton's book, Searching for Sisters, delves into many more and offers several case studies on researching particular women using various methods and sources. 

Even those who are not Catholic may have encountered a Catholic sister at some point in their lives, in a school, hospital, nursing home, or other ministry. Searching for Sisters will be a valuable resource for anyone wishing to research a Catholic sister or nun, if for no other reason than to combat these women's usual fate: that of obscurity.

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2026. All rights reserved.

 

 

IMAGES

Top image of Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Mary's School for the Deaf, circa 1880, and photographs of Sister Scholastica and Sister Mary Peter Claver provided by the Sisters of St. Joseph Archive, Clarence, New York. Used with permission.

Holy Cross Cemetery photos by Nancy Gilbride Casey, 10 July 2025.

 

NOTES

¹ Sunny Jane Morton, Searching for Sisters: A Guide to Researching Catholic Nuns in the United States (Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2026), vii.

² Ibid.

³  St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1848 -, Volume B1, no page noted, "Temporis missionis per Rev. P. Tschonkens, CSSR," Barbara Trauscht, 12 November 1864; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4R-59KS-F : accessed 16 Nov. 2024); citing parish records, Sheldon. Also, St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Sheldon, Wyoming, New York, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1848 -, Volume B1, no page noted, "Temporis missionis per Rev. P. Tschonkens, CSSR," Maria Trauscht, 18 June 1863; imaged, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4R-59V1-K : accessed 16 Nov. 2024); citing parish records, Sheldon.

⁴ Dictionary of Biography of Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, database entry for Mary Jane (Magdalena) Cassidy (1888-1947); citing Archives of Sisters of St. Joseph of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

⁵ Biographical Sheet, Mary Scholastica Trauscht; citing Sisters of St. Joseph Archives, Clarence, New York. Also, Biographical Sheet, Mary St. Peter Claver Trauscht; citing Sisters of St. Joseph Archives, Clarence, New York. 

⁶  Obituary of Sister Mary Scholastica, clipping, unknown newspaper, 3 October 1890; citing Sisters of St. Joseph Archives, Clarence, New York. Also, "Sister Mary Claver," obituary clipping, unknown newspaper, 7 December 1891; citing Sisters of St. Joseph Archives, Clarence, New York. The archivist believes both obituaries may have been printed in the LeCouteulx Leader, the student newspaper of St. Mary's School for the Deaf, where Sister Scholastica taught.

⁷ Ibid. 

⁸ Holy Cross Cemetery, Lackawanna, Erie, New York, p. 129, Sister of St. Joseph, Lot 129, Sec. O, Grave 10, record 213-703, Sister Mary Scholastica Trauscht, 3 October 1890; database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZD9Y-CXZM : accessed 7 November 2024); citing Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York. Also, Holy Cross Cemetery, Lackawanna, Erie, New York, p. 129, Sister of St. Joseph, Lot No. 129, Sec. O, Grave 16, record 243-1082, Sister Mary Claver Trauscht, 7 Dec. 1891; database and images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ZD9Y-CFMM : accessed 7 November 2024); citing Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York.

⁹ Holy Cross Cemetery, Lackawanna, Erie, New York, p. 135, Section O, Grave 6, Rev. Peter Trauscht, 14 June 1891; database and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C34G-299K-3 : accessed 7 November 2024); citing Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York.