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
The following books include an "Index of Names to the Marriages, Births, Deaths, Promotions, &amp;c. " covering various time periods. 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. 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. "General Index to the Gentleman's Magazine" Nichols, 1821. 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.