Donald Trump’s German Root

choi

Ellen Emmerentze Jervell, In Trump's Ancestral Home, Folks Tout the Wine, Not the Donald; German town of candidate's grandparents also prefers its link to Heinz ketchup. Wall Street Journal, Jan 12, 2016 (front page).
http://www.wsj.com/articles/in-t ... e-donald-1452561128

four consecutive paragraphs:

"According to local historian Roland Paul, Friedrich Trump left Germany without seeking official approval from Germany to do so, presumably because he wouldn’t have been allowed to leave before serving in the army.

"Like many arriving in the US in the late 1800s, Friedrich Trump didn’t have a passport. At the time of his arrival, U.S. immigration regulations were quite limited, and as long as you could take care of yourself, you could legally enter, according to Patrick Connelly, an archivist at The National Archives in New York City.

"Kallstadters who know Mr. Paul’s account are confused by Mr. Trump’s calls to restrict U.S. immigration.

" 'If his grandfather had been treated the way Trump wants to treat immigrants, he would never have made it,' says innkeeper Veronika Schramm.

My comment:
(a) The German surname Trump: "a drummer, from Middle High German trumpe 'drum' "
(b) Kallstadt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kallstadt
(Kallstadt lies on the German Wine Route; land here was settled by a Frankish clan that arose about 500 [AD] and whose chief, Chagilo, became the village’s namesake")
(c) The quotation not only confirms my suspicion that a visa was not needed at the time to immigrate to US, but goes beyond, a passport was not needed.