Related To Someone I Know?

I've been talking about things I found on Mocavo and on my New Madrid trip. One of the things I found in both places was the last name of Flora's daughter, Zelpha. She was born Zelpha Mangrum, but she married a guy named Johnston Copelin.

According to a death certificate of one of her brothers, Zelpha (the informant) lived in LaPorte, Indiana. I didn't think anything of it. Then I did some research on her husband, finding out that his family was based in Indiana and Illinois. And then it hit me why I kept coming back to the name that sounded so familiar - Copelin is the name (spelled a bit differently) of the doctor who literally saved my life multiple times since 1996. (I'm not being dramatic, by the way - the man saved me as a kid, as teenager and as an adult. I owe him everything to the point he's coming to my "family only" wedding in August.)

Guess where he's from? That same area of Indiana. I know that the good doc and I don't have a blood relationship here, but I think it's so incredible that we do have a link - besides all the rearrangement he's done of my organs over the past 15 years. This is why I do what I do. I am still amazed in the connection. I don't know exactly how he is related to the Copelin gang I'm working on, but I'm making progress. I'm determined to find the link between him and I, even though it's probably ten degrees of separation. I don't care, I still find it amazing.