Local and Family History Forum

About the Local and Family History Forum

The purpose of the Local and Family History Forum is to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and information for the better use of specialized Virginiana collections and oral history collections.

Forum Objectives:

To provide continuing education programs annually for interested library personnel.
To assist interested institutions in collection development and management of Virginiana, oral history, and genealogical collections.

Get Involved

Virtual or in-person: All meetings are held virtually via Zoom.
Time commitment: Monthly meetings and ongoing opportunity for discussion and sharing on Basecamp.
 Recruiting period: New members can sign up all year using the above form.
Active time: Members are active all year .
Busiest time of the year: N/A
Committee communication platforms: Basecamp, email, Zoom.  
Conference attendance: Conference attendance is optional.
 Conference presentation: No presentation, but we hope you join us for a history themed meet up.

About the 2026 Local and Family History Forum Chair

Chair: Annie Hatton, Library of Virginia

LFH Chair

Annie Hatton has worked in Virginia history since 2011 when she started volunteering at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, but she has long been fascinated since her first trip to Colonial Williamsburg as a child. After growing up in Fairfax County, she moved to Richmond to pursue an undergraduate degree at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she majored in English and minored in Writing and American Studies. She fell in love with Richmond and its wonderfully quirky community, so she remained in the city after graduating. She earned her MLIS at Old Dominion University and has been a reference librarian with the Library of Virginia since 2019, where she works directly with patrons researching topics ranging from family and local history to state government to Virginia history and culture. One of her favorite aspects of library work is helping people get an “aha!” moment when they find the perfect resource for their information needs. She is passionate about promoting open access and information literacy to help people gain the research skills they need, and access the information. She loves connecting the past to the present, either through discovering family history, or by learning the local history of an area. She hopes to connect librarians and archivists working in Virginia genealogy and local history to resources and help promote and support the work we do throughout the Commonwealth.

Outside of libraries, she is home with her family, which includes a husband, a son, and a menagerie of pets. They enjoy exploring parks and museums around the state, and of course, using the local library. They are Little Free Library stewards and installed a Little Free Library in their front yard.

Your itinerary for one perfect day in Virginia: Champagne breakfast at the Jefferson Hotel, an afternoon stroll through the Maymont gardens, dinner at L’Possum, ending with live concert at one of Richmond’s venues.
One thing you can’t live without: Cats
One favorite topic in Virginia history: Learning the local history of a town, city, or community
One piece of advice for Local and Family History members: Stay connected, and know your collection and its gaps. If you don’t have a resource in your collection, there may be another library or institution that does have the information a patron needs.
One accomplishment you’d like to share: Completing a MLIS while working full-time and having an infant at home