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The family of Ollivander has long been associated with the mysterious profession of wandcraft.
It is said that the name means ‘he who owns the olive wand’, which suggests that the original
Ollivander arrived in Britain from a Mediterranean country (olive trees not being native to
the UK). Mr Ollivander himself believes that his earliest forebears in this country arrived
with the Romans, and set up stall (subsequently shop) to sell to ancient British wizards whose
wands were crude of construction and unreliable in performance.

Mr Ollivander is arguably the finest maker of wands in the world, and many foreigners travel
to London to purchase one of his wands in preference to those on offer in their native lands.
Mr Ollivander grew up in the family business, in which he showed precocious talent. He had
the ambition of improving upon the cores and wand woods hitherto used and from his earliest
days conceived a single-minded, even fanatical, determination in his pursuit of the ideal wand.

------J.K. Rowling, Pottermore