Question
You had a reader who wanted to plant cherry pits from cherries from trees at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. I know those cherries! They are indeed tasty. Your reader might want to contact Peter Hatch, the head gardner at the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Society for advice. He generally only plants species that Jefferson had, so those cherries may not be as bybridized as others.
I live a few miles from Monticello in Central Virginia. My mother and many other neighbors have sour cherries trees that have been there for 50-100 years, through several generations of trees, so I assume they are not grafted on anything. Young trees come up from shoots and if you transplant them they usually live, but I have never had any luck growing them from seeds. Some of the sour cherries are a little sweeter than the others and bear fruit a week or two later than the others. Is that an indication that they are a separate species? With honey bees flying back and forth between the two types of sour cherries, is it possible that some trees in the neighborhood are now a cross between the two?
Someone suggested that nicking the pits before planting would help them germinate. Do you think that is true?

Answer
Hi Overton,
Thanx for your very helpful information.  I really enjoy learning about this stuff!  The cherries you talk about that your mother and her neighbors have sound like heirloom/open pollinated varieties.  It is quite possible that over the last 50 years, your cherry trees have cross-pollinated and created new varieties.  Nature is the original hybridizer.  I think it would be a fun venture to take a group of the various shoots you mentioned and start a little experiemental cherry orchard and isolate the cherries with the best tastes.  Yes, nicking pits is generally helpful in getting the seeds to germinate.  Bear in mind that most pit fruit requires a cold period of 60-90 days to break dormancy so the cold action of winter is still required, nicking or not, to get the seed to germinate.  I hope this helps and thank you so much for the interesting information.
Tom