I have posted a picture of the gravestone of one of my 4th-great grandfathers, Jacob BERLIN. The link is https://www.jewishgen.org/viewmate/viewmateview.asp?key=VM86484. I am interested in finding out what it says. I have already received some responses and thanked those people, but in case anyone has additional information or another opinion, I am posting it here now.

He was born about 1763 in Gelsdorf (Landkreis Ahrweiler RP) and died at 2 PM on 30 January 1850 in Meckenheim (Rhein-Sieg-Kreis NW). The two places are less than 4 miles apart, but the Rheinland-Pfalz -- Nordrhein-Westfalen border runs between them.His parents were Joseph (Geiseler) BERLIN (born about 1715, died in 1786 or earlier in Gelsdorf) and Gudula (Goeth) Jacob (born about 1722, died on 8 April 1808 in Gelsdorf). Gudula's birth year was computed from her age given at death, but she may have been a few years younger because she had known children from 1747 to 1769.

Jacob also had a second given name Zwi (Tsvi in English spelling) to distinguish him from a brother also named Jacob. When Jews in the Rheinland were required to adopt family names by the Napoleonic law of 1808, he took the name SCHMITZ but later reverted to BERLIN. For what it is worth, the two names Jacob and Jacob Zwi were regarded as different -- the other Jacob BERLIN named a son Jacob Zwi. Jews in the Rheinland were not allowed to assume names based upon places, but they could if it was already been used, and Joseph BERLIN was already using the name when he first appeared in Gelsdorf records about 1740.

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Thank you very much and Shana Tova.