This is the first free online copy of Domesday Book. The site was built as a non-profit project by me, Anna Powell-Smith, using data created by Professor J.J.N. Palmer and a team at the University of Hull.
I'm on Twitter at @darkgreener, or you can mail me: anna [at] opendomesday.org (sorry, but I can't help with genealogical research).
Domesday Book was a detailed survey of land holdings and resources in England in AD 1086. It is one of the most important historical records ever made. It was commmissioned by William I of England in winter 1085. Learn more at the Hull Domesday Project.
During the 1990s, Professor J.J.N. Palmer and a team at the University of Hull geocoded and standardised each entry in Domesday, to create the Domesday Explorer CD-ROM. The project was funded by the AHRC, and assisted by an English translation of Domesday provided by Phillimore & Co.
In 2011, I stumbled across the Hull data files online, and used them to make this site and its maps.
Check the Hull Domesday Project's excellent guide to terminology.
Yes! The raw Domesday data is hosted by Hull University, under a CC-NC-BY-SA licence.
Yes. They're available under the CC-BY-SA licence, which essentially means that you can use them for commercial and non-commercial projects, but please credit Professor John Palmer, George Slater and opendomesday.org.