from the Scottish Borders.

I am fascinated by your wife's maiden name McElmurry.
My wife has an ancestry line McIlmorrow from Dailly in Ayrshire in Scotland. For some reason they changed their surname to McMurray in the early 1800's.
There are no McIlmorrow's in Scotland nowadays but I have discovered McLemores in USA descended from a branch of the same McIlmorrow family and indeed there is a two hundred year old tombstone in Dailly kirk yard for a McIlemorrow which appears to be another spelling of the same name. So your wife could possibly be related to my wife!!!