egruff --- the two families ARE distantly related, it's just that one family grows only for distribution to the major cigar manufacturers, and the other makes cigars.
The URL I posted above is about the family that grows the tobacco (and does not make cigars), and this one is about the family that does ...
http://www.olivacigar.com/oliva_life_tobacco.htm
This is a quote from John Oliva, that I borrowed from another forum, in which he is an active member:
Shane is correct we are distantly related. We do in fact get along very well. There has never been any animosity between my family (Oliva Tobacco Co. - the tobacco growers) and Gilberto Oliva (Oliva Cigar Co. - the cigar makers).
As I have stated many times on this board they are a valued customer of our company, and I'm frankly proud that some of our tobacco goes into their product. They make a damn good cigar.
About the only problem we ever had was when they started their cigar company I guess some 6 or 7 years ago, and called it Oliva Tobacco Co. This was done unintentionally. You know how we settled it. My father called Gilberto Jr and said there would be a problem with that creating confusion with our customers who might think we had gone into the cigar manufacturing bussiness.
Gilbertico agreed and changed the company name to Oliva Cigar. No lawyers, no threats of lawsuits, and no hard feelings. All it took was a simple ten minute phone conversation.
Now for the record - Oliva Tobacco Co. (my company) only grows tobacco. We sell tobacco in some form or another to just about every major cigar manufacturer outside of Cuba. Tabacalera Oliva (Oliva Cigar Co.) makes only cigars and grows some tobacco for their own use. Our families relationship goes all the way back to Cuba, but the two companies are not related in any way.
I hope this clears some things up ...