Evening Lisa

The McDow, MacDow and similar variations are virtually unknown in Scotland.

I am approaching 72 years, lived in Scotland for 58 of them; and have NEVER encountered anyone with such a variant name.

Checking on Scotland's People, run on behalf of the Registrar General of Scotland, covering from 1513 to 1956, Births, Marriages, Deaths, Wills and 8 Censuses; and thus the most comprehensive site available for such information, yields the following results-

DOW - about 47,000
McDow - 23, Mc Dow - 7. Both versions mainly 19th century
MacDow - 1, Mac Dow 0. Some time during 1553 to 1854

It would seem likely that your variant name arose in Nova Scotia; and that you have to pin down there if it is truly derived from a DOW settled there.

Without that information, you will find it virtually impossible to get a starting point in the Scottish Records.

Alex Dow