Update-Resolved: I am new to this forum so am not sure of the custom of closing posts when the issue is resolved. I am used to the expectation of sharing back in posts so that forum posts and responses turn into a type of knowledge base for use in searching by others (if response is warranted to the post).
I searched this forum first for the word "back-up" and was not directed to any posts with these words.
I was able to find what I was asking for here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups
Being new to WordPress and to MySQL databases I know I was not using the correct words for what I was trying to ask and did not ask my question very clearly.
This link had the information that I was looking for. How to get to the location where the posts are stored - the MySQL data base to export the data.
Maybe someone else can also benefit from this link on this topic and save a few minutes in searching.