Tim grew up in a sabbath keeping family. When he was a little boy his father and mother attended Seventh Day Adventist assemblies. His father taught in a Seventh Day Adventist School in Bellingham Washington. When Tim was about six years old his parents divorced. By then Tim’s family was living with his maternal grandparents on a small dairy farm in Custer, Washington. Tim, his brothers, and mother lived there until Tim started high school in Ferndale. By then Tim’s elder brothers were grown and gone. During the time on the farm the family did not attend a Seventh Day Adventist church, but they still kept sabbath.

Tim always loved what Christians call “The Old Testament”. When we started studying the “New Testament” from its Jewish foundation, we started calling the Scriptures, “The Original Scriptures and the Apostolic Scriptures. Tim felt such a calling to the Original Scriptures that he struck up a friendship with a Rabbi in Bozeman Montana. Rabbi Chaim told Tim that though the Jews do not actively protolyze, they have respect for those “gentiles” who feel a call to learn more about Judaism. The Rabbi invited Tim to study online with him in classes that he teaches.

Tim and I have been studying the scriptures with FFOZ for about 10 years. The more we learn, the more he has wondered if he has Jewish heritage. He did a DNA test which showed German background, but nothing specifically Jewish.

Tim’s grandparents last name was Meyer. This is what I discovered in an AI search about the name Meyer.

“Meir (or its variants like Meyer, Meier, Myers) is itself a surname that originated in Germany.  Key details include:

• Origin of the Name: Meyer (and variants) is a common German surname derived from the occupation of a steward or bailiff.  However, many German Jews adopted it in the 18th and 19th centuries because it sounded similar to the Hebrew given name Meir, which means “enlightened” or “light.”
• Immigration Patterns: Jews with this surname typically immigrated to the US retaining the German spelling Meyer or Meier, rather than changing it to a new name.  The context notes that many German Americans anglicized names like Müller to Miller, but Meyer remained a common Jewish surname in America. 

Tim’s brother had been intrigued by his family’s history so when he was Germany, he looked for his family name there. He could not find much. I don’t remember the details of his attempted search. We have been left wondering if Tim’s grandparents were Jews.

Tim in front of his grandfather.

Next to him is his brother Joe in front of his grandmother.

Tim showed this picture to a friend of ours who lives in Hebron. He told Tim that his father “is an Ashkenazy Jew.”

Then last week we started watching a movie about the Holocaust titled “The Aryan Couple”. The movie was so graphic and brutal, we didn’t watch the whole thing. But in the opening minutes there were pictures taken at the Auschwitz museum. The screen scanned across a mountain of personal belongings that are now on display in the museum. Among the items scanned was a mountain of suitcases, with family names painted on them. 

As the camera scanned, Tim caught this:

I looked for further evidence that the pictures were authentic. They are. I found these pictures on a website about Auschwitz. 

Who was Jnes Meyer? And what do the other words mean?

Let me know if you have any ideas.

Update: Thank you, my friends for your responses. A couple of you told me that Koln is a city in Germany, in English Cologne. Kalua, from Tasmania, told me that the number is the postal code and that Jnes is his first name it is variation of the north German personal name Jens which is a shortened form of Johannes.

Very interesting!