His obituary in the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa stated that his parents were Enoka Kanihomauole and his second wife Maraea Nalimu o Kiope.

[7] Lilikalani filed a claim with President Theodore Roosevelt, the Speaker of the House of Representatives Joseph Gurney Cannon, and Hawaii's Delegate to the U. S. House of Representatives Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, claiming to be "the sole heir to the Kamehameha rights to the Crown lands".

[8] In a letter to the editor of The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Hawaiian genealogist and royal claimant Emma Defries asserted that Lilikalani's genealogy was "fraudulent" and that "in his supreme impudence scheme to press his obscure ancestors to the front and claim descendant through Kanuha the great, son of Keawe the second, is absolutely false."

[7] A long-standing political rivalry existed between King Kalākaua and Queen Emma, widow of Kamehameha IV who died in 1863.

Stevens conjectured that youthful voter support for Kalākaua was based on their own hopes of being elected to public office.

Queen Emma was dismissive of Lilikalani as a political asset, "Lilikalani is D. K.'s own mouthpiece in the Legislature, a fu-fu, he choaks with fright at addressing a crowd, but D. K. confident in his own past awkwardness & ultimate success, to the very pinnicle of honor and grandure through perseverance and ambition, intends to push this young fellow through.

A sister of hula court dancer Pauahi Pinao, Hana or Hannah was educated at the Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary.

[21][22] Lilikalani and Hannah celebrated their 25th (silver) wedding anniversary on June 16, 1902, at Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, attended by Kahu (pastor) Henry Hodges Parker and other congregation members.