Seismic hazard in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) depends on the rupture scenario ascribed to the subduction zone offshore, either as several large events or as a single event which ruptures the entire subduction zone. The most recent event may have involved the entire subduction zone, based on recent paleoseismic findings in Oregon and northern California, but correlations among subsidence records still reflect significant dating uncertainties. At some sites dating precision has been achieved when growth order among wood samples from coseismically killed trees could be used to eliminate one or more modes in the calendric distribution nearest the event time. Where dendrochronologic evidence was not available, dating precision has been pursued with large numbers of replicate AMS C-14 age determinations. This approach has met with some success, but has been expensive and time-consuming. Dating and correlation of earlier submergences is much less precise due to poor exposure and limited carbon preservation. Refining and extending the chronology of major PNW earthquakes may be possible by improving methods of data collection and analysis. We have developed methods to refine radiocarbon and event date distributions in cases where additional information is available, such as growth order among samples, or separations by some known amount of time. We will present cases from coastal sites including Coos Bay, Willapa Bay, and the Sixes River, and illustrate potential data collection strategies to maximize the quantitative dating resolution for coastal paleoseismology. A review of available radiocarbon and stratigraphic data from coastal studies indicates that ordered samples would often yield better dating resolution than replicate sampling at an event horizon.