Dad who swapped homes with ‘stranger’ in London learns they’re second cousins after ‘unbelievable’ family tree discovery

A Shrewsbury father-of-four who completed a home swap with an apparent stranger in London has said he “couldn’t believe it” when he learned they are second cousins after they discovered their family tree.

Mark Sallin, 55, a finance business partner, and his wife Helen, 48, a teacher, have been using LoveHomeSwap – which has since been acquired by leading home swap platform HomeExchange – for more than a decade.

In 2014, Mark and Helen wanted to complete a home swap in London with their four children – Florence, now 18, William and Edward, both 16, and Henry, 10 – and sent out exchange requests to around a dozen members.

One couple responded, agreeing to an exchange in May that year – and on the day the Sallin family were due to arrive at the north London terraced house, Mark and Helen first met homeowners Simon and Jo Sanders.

Mark noticed Simon had similar mannerisms to his father but did not think anything of it – until an email from Simon appeared in his inbox in March 2015, saying he had discovered they were related.

The family tree revealed the two men share the same great-grandfather, Louis Salinsky, originally from Russia – and since the “amazing” revelation, the two families have met up several times.

Mark told PA Real Life: “Genuinely, you can’t even put it into numbers – one in 10 million? One in 50 million?

“Sometimes it might be your fourth or fifth cousin, but we were literally next to each other on the family tree.

“We might have never found it – it’s just the fact that I’ve got an unusual second name that he spotted it. It’s just mad.”

Simon added: “I was surprised, but in a way, not shocked because it all seemed to make sense having met them – I felt immediately at home and comfortable doing the home swap with them.

“For us, this was our first home swap in the UK, it was great for a weekend, and the benefit was also that we were having people looking after our house and our pets as well.”

Mark and Helen signed up to LoveHomeSwap, which joined the HomeExchange group in 2023, more than a decade ago – and the platform currently has more than 270,000 homes across 145 countries.

In their search for more affordable ways to go on holiday as a family of six, Mark said HomeExchange seemed like a “good opportunity” as you pay an annual membership fee of £180 but nothing for the accommodation.

The family have completed eight home swaps across the UK in places such as York and Suffolk, and they will be exchanging with a family in The Netherlands in August.

“With our home life with four kids, it’s always difficult to find accommodation – it’s obviously expensive – so we thought this would be a good opportunity,” Mark said.

In 2014, Mark said he and his wife sent out around a dozen exchange requests, with the message: “We fancy a weekend in London if you fancy a weekend in Shrewsbury?”

Describing Shrewsbury as an “old Tudor town, with very rural surroundings”, Mark was not certain any Londoners would want to swap – but soon enough, Simon and his wife Jo responded, agreeing to an exchange.

At the time, Mark and his family were living in a five-bedroom, three-storey Victorian house in Shrewsbury, but they have since moved to another five-bedroom property in the town, which has an annexe.

“We didn’t actually expect anyone to do this,” Mark said.

“It’s always exciting for us country folk to go to London and we thought we’d go for the weekend while we can carry Henry – who was three months old at the time – around.”

On the Friday of the May Bank Holiday that year, the Sallin family travelled to London and met with Simon and Jo before they left their house.

Mark, who is originally from Bury, Lancashire, said they learned that Jo was from Bolton, Greater Manchester – and with the two towns being less than 10 miles apart, this seemed like the “biggest coincidence”.

Then, after Simon showed them how to use the television, Helen remarked to Mark: “He’s just like your dad.”

Mark said: “When we arrived there were many idiosyncrasies that reminded me of my dad and then they went up to Shrewsbury.

“They had a good time, we said our thank yous at the end, and that was that.”

Around 10 months later, Mark received an email out of the blue from Simon, with an attachment of a picture of a family tree.

Mark described reading the email as an “Oh my God” moment – and after looking at the family tree, he discovered they share the same great-grandfather, Louis Salinsky.

After the Second World War, Mark explained that this Jewish surname was “Anglicised”, changing from Salinsky to Sallin and Sanders respectively.

The email from Simon, sent on March 14 2015, reads: “I was just showing my son the family tree and we decided to look for someone who was about my age but at the other end of the tree (so to speak).

“Anyhow… we followed across from my grandfather Emmanuel to his brother Bertie through male descendants and ended up with Mark Sallin who married Helen Bishop…

“I thought, I recognise those names… and looking into it and back at my emails… realised that these two are surely you two!

“Seems a jolly good reason to get in touch again – thought you would be as amazed as I was!”

Mark said he replied, saying, “I can’t believe this”, and the two exchanged several emails before meeting up again in 2018 and later going to a football match at Wembley.

The two families have continued to stay connected and see each other when they can, and Mark has since done his own research into his heritage, taking a DNA test with family history site Ancestry.

Mark loves that HomeExchange allows you to meet new people and said it encourages you to explore your local area, rather than just staying in the proximity of a hotel or resort.

The fact that other families can look after your home and pets is a bonus, both Mark and Simon added.

Although some may be hesitant about staying in someone’s home or welcoming strangers into their own home, Mark said he has only had positive experiences and would recommend it to anyone.

Speaking about connecting with Simon and Jo, Mark said: “It did ignite my interest (to find out more about my heritage) because I hadn’t really delved into it.

“It’s a very difficult family tree to dig into because of the ever-changing geographical borders in eastern Europe and there are not a lot of records past about 1840, but it’s really interesting.

“It exposes you to a different world.”

For more information, visit HomeExchange’s website here: homeexchange.com.