When Knud Asbjornsen was born in 1845, in Hordaland, Norway, his father, Asbjorn Knudsen, was 28 and his mother, Sigrid Gjetmundsdatter, was 30. He married Gjertrud Olsen on 23 May 1872, in Luster, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway. They were the parents of at least 8 sons and 2 daughters. He died in 1912, in Luster, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, at the age of 67.