Catharina Vanderheyden De Garmo

Catharina Vanderheyden was born in Albany about 1664. She was the daughter of Jacob Tysse and Anna Hals Vanderheyden. Her father was a tailor and trader and one of the early settlers of Beverwyck.

"Caatje" grew up in Albany where her brother Dirck was a prominent businessman and landholder who had taken over from their aged father. By the early 1680s, she had become the wife of the French trader Pierre De Garmo. She was the mother of his ten children born from the 1680s to 1704. She was a lifelong member of the Albany Dutch church.

As the Albany-based wife of a frequently absent French trader, Catharina was called on to answer complaints against her husband before the Albany court. She also was sued for slandering another Albany woman.

In 1709, she was identified as the co-owner of a piece of property in the third ward. Perhaps she had inherited the parcel from the Vanderheydens.

No record has been found of her death.

Sources: The life of Catharina Vanderheyden De Garmo is CAP biography number 5675. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.