Michelle,
If I understand Klaus correctly, the Meyer was a manager or overseer for the
noble or church landowner. He made sure that the peasants (for example, my
ancestors!) were productive, took care of the land, and returned appropriate
rent to the owners. He may have assigned tenants to various plots, as well.
A few of the variants Klaus mentioned seem to refer to various crops:
Linsen=lentils, Gersten=barley; others to types of land: Brock=pieces or
parcels, Brink=marginal or at the edge.
Also, Klaus, entschuldigen Sie sich nicht! Ihre Englisch ist überhaupt
besser als mein Deutsch! Vielen dank!
Art
All of this talk of the Meyers reminds me of a story my Great Grandfather (George Henry Meyer) used to tell that was remembered to me by my mother a number of years ago. As a bit of background, I grew up in SE Minnesota in an area where about 50 percent of the people were either named Meyer or were related to someone who was.
Seems that in Germany, field hands or hired men on the farm were called Meyers. Whenever a farmer's daughter had a child out of wedlock, the doctor while filling out the birth certificate would ask who the father was. He was answered, "Uch, It was one of the Meyers." Hence the child's last name was Meyer, and that's how there got to be so many of them.
Source -- George Henry Meyer of Bornsen Germany, then Eitzen Minnesota, 1864--1936
(Hope no one feels offended or anything by this, it's just meant as a bit of fun. The story has come to mind several times while reading about the Meyer names)