Jeffrey Matthew Yerkey
One day back in January, I was visiting my mom and dad in Louisville, KY, and came across two books I had seen many times before, "The Stepp/Stapp Families of America," by Henry Scalf, and "The Stepp Family Chronicles," by William W. Stepp. I'd passed these books by many times before. This time, however, I didn't shuffle past them. Instead, I picked them up and began to read.
Names that had only been ghosts or vague recollections came to life for the first time. In these pages were my ancestors. And like the great music of the Stanley Brothers or Bill Monroe, their voices spoke plainly, honestly and to my soul.
I borrowed the two books from my mother, Myrene Stepp Yerkey, and brought them back to my home in San Francisco. At this point I should tell you that I am a "computer nerd." I love computers--In fact, I make my living on one. (Actually, several.)
I wanted to see clearly how all my Stepp ancestors "linked up" so I bought a genealogy charting and database program, Reunion, and began entering data from the William Stepp's book (the newer Stepp book) into my Macintosh. (Mac rules!)
After completing in my "direct line," it occurred to me to contact William W. Stepp to see if he had a computer disk of his book, "The Stepp Family Chronicles." (I knew the Scalf book predated personal computers.) Sadly, he didn't, but we chatted anyway. He told me how he wrote the book out in longhand and had a woman type it up.
We talked on and he asked me what I was going to do with my data when I finished it. Then it occurred to me-- the Internet. I would take this newly "binaryized" data, from this masterful work of love, sweat and effort, and publish it anew.
This time it's being presented for a new audience -- both the young ones who are just now plugging into the Web, like my 12 year old stepson Patrick; and for us older Stepps who refuse to stop growing and reaching, like my uncle John Stepp in Massachusetts who, at 62, just got himself on the Information Superhighway.
My grandfather, the late Matt Stepp of Inez, Kentucky was a great man. He never stopped learning, never stopped asking questions. The Internet would've suited him to a 'T.' I'd like to think that this Web Site would have him surfing tonight.
-- JMY