Guys, an update with lots of questions.
I "upgraded Elements 10 catalog", system seems to be slowly building previews of all those now. Unfortunately, though, I can no longer see any of the 2014 folders I have been working on all year. I have tried clicking on: "Catalog", Folders, "Photography" which is the name of the external drive on which all this was mounted", and I see lots of old folders from Elements import but none of the original folders in Lightroom.
can anybody help with this? Ugh....