Jason Byrne

In early childhood, I was fascinated by maps. I would study them, memorize them, draw them. Over time I realized that what I really loved is how maps told a story. Hidden in the names of cities and roads, in the boundaries of counties and states, and even in the paths of roadways, there was this encoded history. Every bend was there for a long-forgotten reason. Each name clued you into a lost settlement of a pioneer family who once settled there. That turned into wanting to discover these secrets. It is kind of like being a detective, and it’s a great feeling when you piece together clues and rediscover the reason behind a riddle you have been wondering about. It somehow turns you into a link in this long continuing timeline of history and makes you feel more connected to your community.

I’m a member of a few historians or historical fiction authors groups on Facebook, as well as a ton of general Florida local history lovers’ groups on Facebook. Through this, I have met some of the other local historians, authors, and journalists I admire. We have been able to talk online or on the phone… and with a few of them in person.

There is nothing more thrilling than creating something that means something to people. When I hear from folks who really care about my work, that makes all the long hours worth it. I figure we only have so many years here on this earth, so we might as well do something that matters and is lasting. I look up to the local historians that have come before me. They were such pillars to the community and their impact is felt beyond their years. Today we all reference their works and they live on through it. So, I just hope that I can do something that affects people positively while I’m here and then hopefully do enough to leave behind lasting echoes after I’m gone!



More about what I do and why

As I got older, I found not only did the past live on through these roads, names, and buildings but also in our culture. Sometimes we don’t realize why we have certain customs or phrases, why we collectively hold certain beliefs and biases. I have found that the more that I learn about our history, the better I understand our present. We see the same themes repeating themselves. For me, that also bleeds over into social justice. History gives a lens to have empathy, see things from other perspectives, but also to understand ourselves better.
I am a member of multiple local historical societies and sit on the board of the Longwood Historic Society. Since joining that society, I have completely redesigned the website to include a large volume of research material, multiple self-guided walking tour guides with detailed histories of each stop, and a way for people to manage their membership online -- including automatic renewing membership dues or donations. I also maintain the society’s social media presence and am the race director for a 5K race we put on that has raised in the tens of thousands for our preservation efforts of local buildings in Longwood that were built in the 1880s. By profession today, I work in the technology space, but in college, I majored in journalism. So, I keep that muscle exercised by writing articles on my blog. My work is popular online and regularly published in special interest or local magazines throughout Florida. Increasingly, I have been asked to speak within the Central Florida region on local history topics and have appeared on local television as a local history expert. On Facebook, I maintain two regional history group pages: Seminole County (Florida) History and Florida Heartland History. And also have my author page. The goal of the groups is to create an engaged community of local history lovers in order to drive support, awareness, participation in events, and membership in local historical societies. Finally, kind of on the side, I am working on eventually authoring non-fiction and historical fiction books. I have started that work, but it will likely take me years yet to complete.
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What I’ve learned

As a moonlighting historian with a full-time day job, almost all of my research happens at night. I am not easily able to travel to distant places, spend hours in a library, or look through archives. Fortunately, there is a whole lot that has been digitized. It is scattered and often hard to find, but it’s out there. However, there is clearly even more that have not been digitized. So, it’s not easily accessible, and it’s also susceptible to being destroyed. For that reason, digitization efforts are essential. We must preserve these things while we can. The same can be said for gathering all of the oral histories we can, while some of these folks are still with us. And also: Support both your local historians and local historical societies.
I have found a very hungry audience out there who absolutely loves local history. They eat up the content that I post. However, very few of them are members of a historical society or doing anything to actively contribute to those efforts. That must change. Apart from that, I am fed by the fuel of feedback from people. Just like I said earlier that it motivates me when I know what I do matters to people; it can really weigh me down when my work does not resonate with my audience. Or when I am trying to reach out to someone for research and can’t get them to contact me back. Especially when I think it’s someone who should care and welcome telling their story. Those things are hard because I take it personally. I know I shouldn’t, but I do. Finally, there are certain topics that people don’t want to talk about. History is not always comfortable or pleasant, but nonetheless, we grow as a society by reflecting on even those painful moments. This is especially true around issues of social justice and the civil rights movement, which are near and dear to my heart. I get a lot of resistance from people when I want to bring up those things that many people would like to forget. For me, I always have to view history through the lens of the time and not with today’s judgment. That’s always a tough rope to walk, but it is essential. It doesn’t mean letting past atrocities off the hook or not applying a modern understanding of morality at all, but it means taking care to understand the culture and collective perceptions of that time.
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How I work

Active Member of the Longwood Historic Society: website design, social media, event coordinator.

Writer: online blog, articles published in special interest or Florida local magazines, aspiring author of non-fiction and historical fiction books.

Public Speaker in the Central Florida region.

Facebook Community Organizer: Seminole County (Florida) History Group, Florida Heartland History Group, Facebook page at jasonbyrnehistory.

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