Gentlemans Magazine

The Gentleman's Magazine began publication in 1731, and continued monthly until 1922. The monthly magazine is particularly useful to genealogists because it published notices of births, marriages, and deaths in prominent families or persons of interest, whether famous or infamous. The magazine included reports of promotions (army, and navy), preferments (Church of England clergy), and all bankruptcies. A major change in format was made in June 1868, when the publication discontinued the published notices useful to genealogists.

Many issues of the Gentleman's Magazine are available in digital format online.

Indexes
In addition to an index to each year of Gentleman's Magazine which was usually published with the December issue of the magazine, was compiled by the College of Arms. This index lists full name and an abbreviated reference to the date, event, and any other person(s) in each entry.

Also, a four volume set of indexes were compiled by Samuel Ayscough (Assistant Librarian of the British Museum) with some assistance or later editing by John Nichols and by Gabriel Richard. Volume 2 includes an "Index of Names to the Marriages, Births, Deaths, Promotions, &amp;c. " covering 1731-1786 and volume 3 contains an "Index of Names of Persons" covering 1731-1818. The indexes are by surname only and are available online for free through Google Books:


 * Ayscough, Samuel and John Nichols. "General Index to the Gentleman's Magazine" Nichols, 1789. Vol. 2. Free digital version at Google Books (follow link to page 64, which is followed by the index, which is numbered as page 1). Indexes names from Vol. 1 "To the End of the LVIth Volume of the Gentleman’s Magazine" and covers 1731-1786.


 * Ayscough, Samuel and John Nichols. (sometimes Richard, Gabriel) "General Index to the Gentleman's Magazine" Nichols, 1821. Vol. 3. Free digital version at Google Books

David Dobson gleaned references to American births, marriages, and deaths from this English newspaper:


 * Dobson, David. American Vital Records from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1731-1868. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987.