nance
the terms describing this fern make my head spin, too. this one has volunteered in several places in my yard, and is thick in the woods along stream banks, particularly.

Here is a link that might be useful: christmas fern

Nancy,
That is a really good question. Growing and Propagating Wild Flowers by Harry Phillips has a section on ferns and gives pretty detailed descriptions. There are only drawings, no photographs. Also the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill has a lot of native ferns that are labelled.
Can you post any pictures, or try to describe any?

Nancy,
Ferns are so very different from flowers in their ID, it's a bit of a alien lingo, but, like all, with practice, you begin to see all the wonderful differences.

Aways off timewise, but, a very wonderful guy who grows native ferns from spores is on the Duke Gardens Educational Program; Tom Goforth, giving a talk in June on Native ferns. He is a wealth of info, so pencil that in on your schedule. Really, don't miss it, he knows a whole lot, and is a fine good teacher.

Have you tried this site, Nancy?

Here is a link that might be useful: Ferns

Nance, there's a Moss, Ferns & Cryptogams forum on Gardenweb, that was a lot of help to me when I was trying to identify some local native ferns.

Here is a link that might be useful: Moss, Ferns & Cryptogams

I recommend Peterson's Field Guide to the Ferns. Not only is it packed full of very good photographs, but it will lead you through the steps of learning how to key out and identify ferns. This is a very useful field guide. I would expect that any of your local bookstores would have it on their shelves so that you could examine it before purchasing.

I second any Peterson's Field Guide. I use the bird field guides and they are the best.