Okay, found my own answer, finally. Ran across a posting including this line:
You can test that the catalog copy is ok by double clicking (or the Mac equivalent) on the file : catalog.pse10db. That should open the organizer with the catalog copy.
which gave me the idea to find that catalog.pse10db file. Found it, double clicked on it, and the organizer came up with all of our pictures, albums, etc. and has apparently decided that this is what we want *smile*.
So all's well that ends well.