Searching for the quietest compact objects in the Milky Way

Our knowledge of compact object binaries is biased. The vast majority identified to date are accreting binary systems, contain pulsars or are gravitational wave emitting mergers. To fully understand their numbers, properties, formation mechanisms and evolutionary paths, new discoveries of non-interacting compact binaries are necessary. I will discuss promising observational methods that can be used to discover these compact objects and summarize recent discoveries of compact objects in non-interacting binaries. I will discuss these systems and their interpretation in the context of the BH census and point the way to making future discoveries using a combination of wide field photometric, astrometric and spectroscopic surveys.