journaling:
When I was a kid, I thought we were the only people in the world with our last name. I was very surprised when I was in my early 20’s, when my uncle returned from a trip to New York with lots of photos of gravestones with “Ganung” written on them. Particularly fascinating were the spelling variations: Genung, GaNun, Ganong, etc.
My uncle also found a genealogy book someone had produced in 1905 that followed the history of the Ganung family. Unfortunately we did not know where our family connected to those in the book.

According to the book, the first Ganung in the country was from France, and arrived in 1657. More recently, we know that my great-grandfather moved his family from New York, eventually settling in North Dakota and raising his family. And that is where my Dad was born and raised as well.

Credits:
I is for Imagination by Amanda Thorderson
US map template by Jessica Sprague