diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5b32409325..b9e042effa 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,14 @@
+## 0.16.3-dev1
+
+### Enhancements
+
+### Features
+
+### Fixes
+
+* **V2 elements without first parent ID can be parsed**
+
+
 ## 0.16.2
 
 ### Enhancements
diff --git a/test_unstructured/partition/html/test_unstructured_elements_to_ontology_parsing.py b/test_unstructured/partition/html/test_unstructured_elements_to_ontology_parsing.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d6bd4fa562
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test_unstructured/partition/html/test_unstructured_elements_to_ontology_parsing.py
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+from unstructured.documents.elements import ElementMetadata, NarrativeText, Text
+from unstructured.documents.ontology import Document, Page, Paragraph
+from unstructured.partition.html.transformations import unstructured_elements_to_ontology
+
+
+def test_when_first_elements_does_not_have_id():
+    unstructured_elements = [
+        Text(
+            element_id="1",
+            text="",
+            metadata=ElementMetadata(text_as_html='<div class="Page" id="1"/>'),
+        ),
+        NarrativeText(
+            element_id="2",
+            text="Example text",
+            metadata=ElementMetadata(
+                text_as_html='<p class="Paragraph" id="2"> Example text </p>', parent_id="1"
+            ),
+        ),
+    ]
+    ontology = unstructured_elements_to_ontology(unstructured_elements)
+
+    assert isinstance(ontology, Document)
+
+    assert len(ontology.children) == 1
+    page = ontology.children[0]
+
+    assert isinstance(page, Page)
+    assert len(page.children) == 1
+    paragraph = page.children[0]
+
+    assert isinstance(paragraph, Paragraph)
+    assert paragraph.text == "Example text"
diff --git a/unstructured/__version__.py b/unstructured/__version__.py
index d750d3b2a7..3eb8a850e8 100644
--- a/unstructured/__version__.py
+++ b/unstructured/__version__.py
@@ -1 +1 @@
-__version__ = "0.16.2"  # pragma: no cover
+__version__ = "0.16.3-dev1"  # pragma: no cover
diff --git a/unstructured/documents/ontology.py b/unstructured/documents/ontology.py
index 853a0a5224..152edc8922 100644
--- a/unstructured/documents/ontology.py
+++ b/unstructured/documents/ontology.py
@@ -67,7 +67,11 @@ def __init__(self, **kwargs):
         if self.html_tag_name == "":
             self.html_tag_name = self.allowed_tags[0]
         if "id" not in self.additional_attributes:
-            self.additional_attributes["id"] = str(uuid.uuid4()).replace("-", "")
+            self.additional_attributes["id"] = self.generate_unique_id()
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def generate_unique_id() -> str:
+        return str(uuid.uuid4()).replace("-", "")
 
     def to_html(self, add_children=True) -> str:
         additional_attrs = copy(self.additional_attributes)
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/html/transformations.py b/unstructured/partition/html/transformations.py
index aa1c53555c..421585a2d5 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/html/transformations.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/html/transformations.py
@@ -135,6 +135,11 @@ def unstructured_elements_to_ontology(unstructured_elements: Sequence[Element])
     id_to_element_mapping = OrderedDict()
 
     document_element_id = unstructured_elements[0].metadata.parent_id
+
+    if document_element_id is None:
+        document_element_id = OntologyElement.generate_unique_id()
+        unstructured_elements[0].metadata.parent_id = document_element_id
+
     id_to_element_mapping[document_element_id] = Document(
         additional_attributes={"id": document_element_id}
     )