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The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London in 1731. The first publication of its type, it featured a broad mix of news, essays, poetry, parliamentary debates, book reviews, and antiquarian notes.

For the genealogist it is an absolute treaure-house of useful data. From the beginning the magazine published notices of births, deaths, and marriages, enabling people throughout the English-speaking world to keep abreast of friends and relatives at home and abroad. About 6,000 of these notices relate to persons in North America and the West Indies, and these have been extracted for this compilation. Among the many fascinating notices are those relating to the deaths of American Loyalists in England and to marriages and deaths in America of "younger sons" of the English gentry and nobility.