When Makelesi Suluka Lavaka was born in 1870, in Pea, Tongatapu, Tonga, her father, Lavaka Mafi Matapule, was 48 and her mother, Sela Lolohea, was 22. She married Barney Smith in 1877, in Pangai, Ha'apai, Tonga. They were the parents of at least 1 son. She died about 1940, in her hometown, at the age of 70, and was buried in Pea, Tongatapu, Tonga.