Ove Oveson, who was noted to use family names Wangensteen, Steen and Hvidt (Albinius), was a priest serving Valdres parish in Oppland in south-central Norway.  He was probably of Danish extraction and was educated in Kopenhagen. 

 

While serving in the Danish Navy in the late 1660s or early 1670s, Ove was kidnapped by Barbary Coast pirates and held captive for a number of years in northern Africa.  He was either released or escaped.  It is possible that he may have been  ransomed by his father Ove Anderson and mother Magnild (possibly a step-mother) of Fredrikstadt south of Oslo (where Ove apparently grew up) since his parents went from affluence to poverty during the 1670s.  There is no further information on the ancestors of Ove's parents.  His father was a logging and shipping magnate, and an Alderman in Fredrikstadt.

 

Ove settled down as priest  (post-Reformation Lutheran) in Valdres parish and bought Stele (Steile) gard (farm) at Vang, which has remained in the family since that time.