Well, that was it!
I changed the config.json to read: "database": "0" and it works.
When I installed nodebb,the setup (I think) said I could choose any database number, and I arbitrarily chose "1" without thinking that the redis database I was going to restore was (presumably) associated with "0". Or, stated differently, there is only one redis database involved in this situation.
Thanks, again, for the observation!
Howard