The circumscription and the phylogeny of the fern family Tectariaceae have been controversial. Previous molecular studies have supported the monophyly of this family, with 4–5 genera. However, these studies were exclusively based on plastid markers and relatively small sampling, especially of the non‐Tectaria genera. In the present study, DNA sequences of eight plastid and one nuclear markers of 25 accessions representing 19 species of Tectaria and 58 accessions representing ca. 90% of the non‐Tectaria species in the family (including Arthropteris) were used to infer a phylogeny using maximum likelihood (ML), Bayesian inference, and maximum parsimony. Our major results include: (1) Tectaria as currently circumscribed is not monophyletic and can be divided into three genera: Tectaria s.str., Draconopteris (gen. nov.) from Central to South America, and Malaifilix (gen. nov.) from Malesia; (2) Draconopteris and Malaifilix, the two new genera, together with Pteridrys, form a strongly supported clade; (3) in our ML analyses, the clade containing Draconopteris, Malaifilix, and Pteridrys (the DMP clade) is resolved as sister to the rest of Tectariaceae and Arthropteris is sister to Tectaria + (Hypoderris + Triplophyllum), suggesting that Arthropteris should be treated as a member of Tectariaceae, and thus Tectariaceae contains seven genera: Arthropteris, Draconopteris, Hypoderris, Malaifilix, Pteridrys, Tectaria, and Triplophyllum; (4) with the well‐supported relationships among the members of Tectariaceae, anastomosing venation in the family is inferred to have evolved independently at least three times; (5) Nephrolepis is strongly supported as sister to a clade containing Cyclopeltis, Dracoglossum, and Lomariopsis, and thus we advocate that Lomariopsidaceae include these four genera (plus the unsampled Thysanosoria); and (6) intercontinental dispersal appears to have played an important role in shaping the extant distribution of Tectariaceae.