Post #27162 by Humuhumu on Tue, Mar 18, 2003 4:39 PM

The way I've understood it (which could certainly be incorrect), is that sometimes families gave a newborn child as a hanai child to another family closer to the chief line. This was the ultimate gift of love, and these children were then considered part of the chief line, and were sometimes held in even higher regard than the natural-born children of the family. Queen Liliuokalani was a hanai child.