The De Garmos of early Albany trace their origins to the marriage of "French vagabond" Pierre De Garmo and Albany native Catharina Vanderheyden who set up housekeeping on Albany's north side during the early 1680s.

Their ten children spread out in the region and beyond. Three sons (Johannes, Matthew, and Jellis) had early Albany lives. The family maintained a limited but constant presence in the city of Albany thru the end of the eighteenth century. Because the Albany De Garmos did not achieve economic or social prominence, their story has been buried in overall the community record and is not much mentioned in traditional Albany histories.

The Colonial Albany Social History Project is determined to reconstruct the De Garmo story and to place individual family members in their appropriate places on the overall community landscape. With the help of printed and living resources, we have undertaken a reconstitution of this important early Albany family.

The initial reconstitution program identified 46 De Garmo family members who meet the criteria for inclusion in our study population. The next phase of project research involves integrating new information from new sources as soon as possible. Their stories will be linked to this page.