Leather Makers: the story of the Gittos tannery in Avondale

Image: Benjamin Gittos, from Murray Gittos collection.

This has been quite a long time in coming. I began to actively compile information on the Gittos family in 2004 -- now, late in 2008, it's complete enough for me to publish "Leather Makers" on Scribd. There may yet be some tweaks and changes, but what I aimed for here is not a rewrite of Murray Gittos' wonderful family history First There Were Three, going into the story of Rev. William Gittos (the best known of the family) or detail as to Francis Gittos' story in Blockhouse Bay (I understand research is underway now into his life there). I was interested primarily in the Avondale-Mt Albert tannery (it straddled the border) and what impact the family had on our local history here in Avondale. The fact that the old Whau Public Hall is still standing, built in 1867 from fundraising mainly by performances by the Whau Minstrels, workers from the tannery including Francis Gittos -- I'd say that impact has left a positive mark here.

An update: for some reason, Scribd tonight is giving me all manner of strife. It seemed to refuse to load the first page (and probably still does).

Another update (Nov. 24) -- well, I knew this was a large project, but I didn't know it would cause so much grief in Scribd. Perhaps their servers are a little slow over the weekend. I'll do another post, and put up links to a four-part version. Part of that has loaded, part hasn't at time of writing.

New post here.