Your question concerning Kandow and its being Scottish in origin: my research has revealed that many immigrant Americans, first and second wave, anglicized surnames to better "fit in" a mainly white-anglo-saxon-protestant America. Kandow may have been Kandowski. Shemanski's became Sims. Ostrowski became Ostrow. Ostrowsky (the y instead of i) usually means your of Russian extraction or Garusiak for some strange reason became Wagner, now that is an anglo name isn't it. Name changing was the norm for those involved in the early motion picture industry. Many first generation European Americans changed their surnames as well. If you were born in the US of European parentage you accellerated your success on the socio-economic ladder. Although Polish American in heritage, I grew up in the coal region of Pennsylvania. In the 1930s my friends and playmates were first or second generation English, Scots, Welsh, and Irish from Ireland and Northern Ireland. The Scottish friends I had were named MacFarland, MacGregor, etc; the Irish friends I had were usually with names Mc (a not used). My best friend later in life was named Dingwall, of pure Scottish-American ancestry. My upbringing in this wonderful and successful melting pot community inspires me to date. So to end with, I may be wrong but I think that Kandow is not a Celtic name, but a shortened name of some sort of other European heritage. Let me know if I am wrong. Thank you.
Posted on Mar 9, 2004, 7:47 PM from IP address 69.160.13.99