Replying to myself. I created a solution that gives me what I want. In the nggCreateAlbum function in nggfunctions.php, look for the line:
if ( !$subalbum = $nggdb->find_album(substr( $key, 1)) )
continue;
and insert the following:
// george stuff
//
$gt_gal = $wpdb->get_results(‘SELECT * FROM ‘.$wpdb->nggallery.
‘ WHERE gid IN (\”.implode(‘\’,\”, $subalbum->gallery_ids).’\’)’, OBJECT_K);
$gt_id = $gt_gal[$subalbum->gallery_ids[0]]->pageid;
$gt_parent = get_post_ancestors($gt_id);
$galleries[$key]->pagelink = get_permalink( $gt_parent[0]);
$galleries[$key]->galdesc = html_entity_decode ( nggGallery::i18n($subalbum->albumdesc) ) .
“
This sub-album contains ” . count($subalbum->gallery_ids) . ” albums.
“;
// $galleries[$key]->counter = count($subalbum->gallery_ids);
// Make sure to comment out the lines below
//
// $galleries[$key]->pagelink = …
// $galleries[$key]->galdesc = …
// end of george stuff
that’s it. You can see this at work at https://photoblog.torralba.us/photo-gallery