Grampa's Left Arm and Other Stories: Tracing My Immigrant Roots from Galicia to Pennsylvania

A memoir and a history, Grampa’s Left Arm tells the story of Jakob Tirjan and Annie Kaufold, immigrants who settled in southeastern Pennsylvania in the early 1900’s. Their village on the Austro-Hungarian eastern frontier faded into history when the province of Galicia came under Polish rule after WWI.

The Author’s curiosity about the origins of his name led him to explore Eastern Europe’s troubled twentieth century history and the societal transformations which shaped his political perspect...