The oldest person (in terms of the year of birth) to have been voice recorded is Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a French inventor, and printer. He was born on April 25, 1817. In 1860, Scott de Martinville created a device called the "Phonautograph," which was intended for the visual study of sound waves but lacked the ability to play back sound.
Although the Phonautograph did not have the capability for audio playback during Scott de Martinville's time, his voice recordings were later rediscovered and converted into playable audio in the 21st century using modern technology. These recordings predate the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison, which was capable of both recording and reproducing sound, making Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville's voice recordings the earliest known voice recordings in history.