Abstract: Young local associations and star forming regions offer us unique opportunities to study how the star formation process begins and propagates through molecular clouds. One major difficulty in addressing this question is the lack of precise 3D kinematics and age information of young stellar populations. Thanks to Gaia's astrometry, large spectroscopic surveys, and improved age-dating methods, this picture is changing. Combining precise 6D phase space data with an orbital traceback analysis, it is now possible to measure precise dynamical traceback ages and study the star formation history of young stellar associations. I will show how this strategy was successfully applied in two different regions, namely the beta Pictoris moving group and the Upper Scorpius and Ophiuchus complex.