Ólafur Kristján Ólafsson was born on May 10, 1877 in Snæfellsnessýsla. He died on August 15, 1966 in Ooltewah in Hamilton County, Tennessee. He took the name Christian Oliver in the west.
Spouse: Katherine Hilpi of German descent.
Children: 1. Marie b. 1903 2. Dorothy b. 1905 3. Loyal C. b. October 22, 1906 4. Vivian (Vernon) b. 1909 5. Theodore b. 1910, d. December 22, 2001 in Tennessee.
Ólafur was the son of Ólafur Ólafsson and Þuríður Guðmundsdóttir in Snæfellsnessýsla who both died before 1891. Ólafur and his four siblings came west by sea before the turn of the century. Ólafur probably first went to Winnipeg where he lived for sometime before moving south to Duluth, Minnesota. From there he made his way west to the Pacific Ocean, probably traveling with his brother Hjörtur, both of whom lived in Tacoma, Washington in 1910. Ólafur soon returned to Duluth and was living there in 1920, but in 1928 he lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in Chicago, Illinois two years later. His residence continued to change as he moved to Barrien Springs, Michigan in 1932. These frequent moves from one state to another were due to his work in photography, in which he photographed in 14 states in the United States before settling in the Appalachian Mountains in Tennessee.