On 6 January 1833, at age 29, he married Ana Luísa de Loreto Carneiro Viana, the sixteen-year-old younger sister of an army officer friend, and a member of an aristocratic family of Rio de Janeiro. The union was contrary to the wishes of the bride's mother, who saw Luís Alves and his family as upstarts. Newspapers connected to political enemies of his family took advantage of this disagreement to level serious, but unfounded, accusations against him, including that he had kidnapped Ana Luísa. Despite the invective, their marriage was a happy one and three children resulted: Luísa de Loreto Viana de Lima, Ana de Loreto Viana de Lima and Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, born in 1833, 1836 and 1847, respectively.