Roger,
I, like you, am a Menzies as well. Kevin Menzies, the son of Michael Menzies who in turn was the son of Barbara Laredo and Algernon Chichester Campbell Menzies.
I have done a lot of research and have quite a bit of background information on Algernon, not so much on Barbara.
Algernon's trail goes dead in the late 1920's after the death of Charlotte Manner's who we believe had been his nanny and whom he had brought to New Zealand with him and his young family in 1906. Was it grief that caused him to float away? Where did he go? Australia ? England? North America? Elsewhere. Do you have any idea's? Does anyone?
The whole of Algernon's life is a mystery. We have always believed him to be the illegitimate son of the earl of Donegall, but even that is uncertain.
As for Barbara we do not know a lot about her other than what my father told us and the bit of research that we have done. My father adored his mother. They suffered extreme poverty in the 1920's and early 30's. She died just prior to my father going to war in WW2. He was a Coast Watcher; captured by the Japanese he spent over 3 years as a Japanese POW. After the war he searched for Algernon but could not find him.
My father was a POW with his half brother, Jack Menzies (Unlce Jack.)
I am curious since you have the surname Menzies, if there is any connection with Algernon and thus between us. Any information would be interesting. My personal email is
klmenzies@hotmail.com.
Kevin Menzies