MacBook Pro Mid-2009 13"

I received a MacBook Pro Mid-2009 13" from a family member who forgot is password to the account or has never logged in (he can't remember). Anyway I thought I could just go into recovery mode and reinstall the OS no big deal. But I can't get into recovery mode no matter what key combos I use. So then I tried the online recovery and same thing. The apple logo with the bar at the bottom shows up and boots right to the OS. I know the key combos are being recognized because I can go into target disk mode and the option mode where I can choose what to boot to. So my next option was to create a bootable usb with the macSierra installer on it. I tried this through the terminal and some free programs neither worked. I also changed the usb from GUID partition to MBR but still extended journaled. I know the usb is working because I used it on my friends MacBook Air and it worked just fine. Booting with the option key on the MacBook Pro and the usb I can see the installer drive show up but when I select it I get the circle with the cross through it which I now know is the prohibited screen. So I guess my question is what are my options from here? Do I need to go and buy a new OS, I think for this mac it would be Lion as that is what it was shipped with? Is MacSierra not compatible with this old mac? Or should I try creating a boot disk with the macSierra installer as there is an optical drive on the mac. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!