I just signed up on this site and read your post of May 2007. I don't want to raise your hopes if you are still searching, but my mother--whom I will have to question again--has spoken often about her great aunt Rhody. She is the only remaining family member of her generation who seems to have any recollections about the family in Kentucky, though she's lived in Indiana her entire life. Our Yates kin came from northern Kentucky around Meade, Breckinridge, and Hardin counties.
I do believe that this was on the Yates side of my family. Please write to me in case you don't hear from me in a few weeks, to remind me to ask about this possible connection.