To discover the point of origin of someone or something by following a trail of information or series of events backward.

How do you use back trace?

1. His family traces back to the Norman Conquest. 2. Many modern festivals can be traced back to an ancient past.

Can be traced back to meaning?

trace back. 1. To ascertain the successive stages in the development or progress of something by reasoning backward from an effect to a cause: We traced our family history back 200 years. Skepticism as a philosophical movement can be traced back to Sextus Empiricus.