Regional government newspapers, Gubernskie Vedomosti, were published in the provinces of the Russian Empire for much of the 19th century and until 1917, contained a wide variety of official announcements. An example from the Gubernskie Vedomosti for Courland is the list of disqualified Libau voters for the 1912 Duma elections.

The Gubernskie Vedomosti contained many other announcements of genealogical value as well, albeit much less sweeping in character than the Duma lists. The example shown here is a list from 1853 naming Jewish residents of Mitau (now Jelgava) who had defaulted on their taxes. The announcement is in German, the official language of Courland at that time, printed in Gothic script. This can be contrasted with the Russian in which the Duma lists were published in the early 20th century. A translation appears below the scanned original announcement.