Justine Clarke

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Biography

Justine Clarke is an Australian actor, singer and author, also well-known as a presenter of the children's show 'Playschool'.

Justine was born in 1971, the daughter of Leonard and Beverley (nee Levine) ^[1]

Justine has graced Australia's TV sets as a versatile actress over more than 30 years. She began with a role in the 1985 film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and a guest appearance on A Country Practice. A few years later, as with the careers of many Australian actors and actresses, a regular role (1988-1989) on the Australian soap opera Home and Away led to being cast in other programs including Love My Way, Wildside, The Surgeon, and Tangle. She also was a cohost of the childrens TV program Play School. Following on from her days on the Play School set, she now has her own band and has toured around Australia with her children's variety entertainment production.^[2][3]

In an episode of the Australian version of Who Do You Think You Are, Justine was given the opportunity to look into several of her ancestors.^[1]

Justine's father was born in the regional city of Newcastle, New South Wales.^[1] Justine traveled back to Newcastle to meet with her uncle, who informed her that he had a marriage certificate for a Robert Allen and a Mary Wright which was solemnised in the St. Matthew's Church in Windsor, one of the Macquarrie towns of early colonial New South Wales, on 1 June 1812.^[4] Mary Wright herself was important early Australian being the daughter of Joseph Wright (a first fleet convict) and Eleanor Gott (a second fleet convict).^[1] Neither her uncle nor Justine had heard of either Robert Allen or Mary Wright and neither knew if they were related to these people. Justine met a local historian at St. Matthew's Church in Windsor. She was told that Mary Wright was her 3x great grandmother, however in a complicated tale, Mary's spouse Robert Allen was not a blood relation.^[1] In the early years after their marriage Robert and Mary Allen had fallen on difficult times and to help them get by had had dealings with a well-known bushranger called William Geary. Robert Allen was tried in 1821 for being in receipt of stolen goods and acting as an accessory to Geary. The trial was covered in the Sydney Gazette. Robert Allen was found guilty and sent to Newcastle Gaol, during which time a more recent convict arrival, James Maher, had been sent to Mrs. Allen's farm near present day Castle Hill to assist her family. Mary ended up having three children to James Maher, including Mary, Justine's 2xgreat grandmother.^[5] Robert received a pardon in 1833 and returned home. In 1848, after the death of Robert Allen in 1845, Mary Allen (nee Wright) formally married James Maher.^[6] James and Mary Maher are buried in Parramatta.^[1]

Justine's mother was the daughter of a Russian (ethnicity) father who came to Australia in 1917.^[1] Both her father and mother are deceased, so she needed to talk to her uncle for more information about her maternal grandfather, Meyer Levine. Her uncle showed her some photographs of both her uncle's Jewish school and of the town where they lived. The family was from Polotsk in present-day Belarus.^[7] Justine traveled to Belarus in an attempt to find out what had happened to Meyer's brother Alex who had returned to Russia for love. She met with several Jewish historians who painted a bleak picture of the life of her ancestors. She was shown a hotel where a number of members of Jewish community were known to have taken refuge. The instability caused by the first Russian revolution in 1905 and the progroms of Jewish communities were major contributing factors in her grandfather's decision to leave Potolsk.^[1] Whilst filming in Potolsk, Justine received a call from her uncle. He informed her that he had made contact with Alex's daughter, Nelli. Justine visited Nelli in Moscow bringing back a letter than Nelli herself had written to enquire of her own relatives in Australia.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} Warner Bros. International Television Productions, 2018, Who Do You Think You Are, Season 9, Episode 5 (61), Justine Clarke, screen date 15 May 2018, SBS One, Australian domestic broadcast
2. ↑ http://music.theaureview.com/interviews/interview-justine-clarke-on-her-new-childrens-television-show-album-release/
3. ↑ http://www.justineclarke.com.au/tours/214
4. ↑ New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Marriage Index, registration number 1361/1812 V18121361 3A, church code "CC"
5. ↑ New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Birth Index, registration number 908/1849 V1849908 66
6. ↑ New South Wales Registry of Births, Deaths, and Marriages, Marriage Index, registration number 225/1848 V1848225 146, church code "LH"
7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polotsk

See Also:

• Wikipedia: Justine Clarke
• Wikidata: Item Q6318349, en:Wikipedia