OK.  I now have completed my "correct" upgrade to KDE 2.2.1.  I will work on 
a document of what I had to do.  This dependency thing in Linux is something 
a non-geek would never, ever want to touch.  It is something that must be 
address for Linux to move from geekdom to everyone else.

Anyway, now I have a backup of literally years of emails and I have this 
current set of email files from the last week or so.  How do I merge the two?

I am using Kmail 1.3.1.  Lots of mail folders.

Alan