 Around 1848 — the exact date of his marriage is not recorded — Rainilaiarivony, then around 20 or 21 years old and having adopted the name Radilifera, concluded a marriage with his paternal cousin Rasoanalina. She bore him sixteen children over the course of their marriage. In addition, a one-year-old son that Rasoanalina had conceived with another man prior to the union, Ratsimatahodriaka (Radriaka), was adopted by Rainilaiarivony as his own. As a young man, Ratsimatahodriaka was groomed by Rainilaiarivony to become his successor, but the youth fell from a balcony while intoxicated and died in his early twenties.
