When did "by way of" start meaning "originally from"

To come from point A does mean that you start a journey at point A and finish somewhere else.

However, to be from point A is to state that point A is your current (and more-or-less permanent) residence; you could think of it as being the end of your journey to find your own place to live. To have arrived at that residence in point A "by way of" point B is simply saying that prior to living in point A, you lived in point B; so the usage is the same, really, once you sort out the directionality.

I agree with the poster that the plain meaning of "I'm from X by way of Y" is "I'm originally from X, but then moved to Y [and now live in Z]." Thus, for example, if you were born in Cleveland, moved to Boston as a college student, and then moved to Atlanta to take a job, you might reasonably say to someone in Atlanta who asks you where you're from, "I'm from Cleveland by way of Boston, but I live in Atlanta now."

Evidently, Szabina Bakos told the New York Times reporters that she lived in Queens but was originally from Hungary, and the reporters analyzed that information as follows: "She is currently on a subway train somewhere beneath lower Manhattan, but she is from [that is, "lives in"] Queens, which she arrived at by way of [that is, "from"] Hungary."

I don't think that "by way of" does a satisfactory job of indicating "after originating in." but you can see how the reporters boxed themselves in by committing to using "from" to mean "lives in." (In the next sentence, they report that another passenger is "from Miami.") The decision to use "from" to mean "lives in" is not inherently objectionable, but it forces the reporters here to scrabble for a way to identify an earlier place of origin for the person from Queens without getting stuck with three instances of "from" in rapid succession, as in "Szabina Bakos, 26, from Queens but originally from Hungary" followed five words later by "Lilian Galiounghi, 31, from Miami."

A more natural way to identify Ms. Bakos might be as "a Hungarian immigrant who now lives in Queens," but perhaps New York Times style disallows calling people immigrants, or the reporters didn't consider that wording breezy enough, or some other complication intervened. Anyway, at least for now, it seems to me that using "by way of" to mean "originally from" is likely to confuse more readers than it edifies.

I encounter the confusing usage most often in the introduction of fighters at boxing and MMA events. There are a few announcers for whom I will give credit for avoiding the ambiguous (or wrong) "by way of" and saying "originally from". Nevertheless, few do. The way you usually hear the questionable usage would be something like, "fighting out of the Dallas Boxing Club by way of Nigeria."

I want to offer a conjecture that might help resolve the issue if there is someone who can follow up on it. I think that Jimmy Lennon Sr. may have been the earliest announcer (or one of the earliest) to employ the strange usage. That was long enough ago, that it could have entered the vernacular as a result of TV coverage of boxing events. If that is so, then Jimmy Lennon Jr. (who himself employs the strange usage) might be able to shed some light on it. Perhaps someone could contact him and get him to comment on the issue.