Found their immigration! :-)
http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=View&r=an&dbid=... New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957 Record for Chas Cooper
1880 > March > 31 > Scythia > image #5
Chas Cooper age 23 M Laborer England
Sarah Cooper age 24 F wife England
Fredk Cooper age 7 M child England
Benjn Cooper age 9/12 M infant England (9mos)
they arrived in America in the nick of time as they were counted in the 1880 Census!! yay! They must have stayed around NY for a couple years as son John Albert Cooper was born there 14 Jan 1882.
1880 Household Members: Name Age
Charles Cooper 24 b. abt 1856 in ENG / d. 7 Mar 1913 Beltrami, MN
Sarah Cooper 28 b. Eng Aug 1854 / d. 9 Jun 1916 Beltrami, MN / Maiden name: Nuttycombe
Fred Cooper 10 b. abt 1870 in ENG / DEATH UNKNOWN
Benjamin W. Cooper 1 b. 16 Jan 1879-80 in ENG / d. 29 Sep 1961 Beltrami, MN
1900 Household Members: Name Age
Charles Cooper 43 b. Eng Mar 1857
Sarah Cooper 45 b. Eng Aug 1854
John Albert Cooper 17 b. NY 14 Jan 1882 / d. 15 Aug 1912 MN
Charles R Cooper 12 b. IL Feb 1888 / 12 Oct 1943 Clearwater Co., MN
One thing I keep coming back to .... and I have a nagging doubt whether Fred is a natural-born child to them. On the ship manifest (Mar 1880) he's 7 and on the 1880 Census he's 10 years old -- only in the space of a couple months. But, even if he was 7, that would make Sarah about 17 when she gave birth, and Charles about 16. eeeks!
My suspicion is that Fred may be Charles' younger brother (possibly not showing yet in the 1871 England Census - Mom could be pregnant though) or a cousin -- and it's possible he was orphaned before they left for USA in 1880, and so Charles "adopted" him to raise him with Sarah. Charles' other siblings make have taken in the other younger siblings too. Just wild speculation at this point, but something like this wouldn't surprise me. Fred disappears after the 1880 New York Census, unless Fred is his middle name, of course.
I think Benjamin is their first-born child:
England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915
Name: Benjamin Cooper
Date of Registration: Jan-Feb-Mar 1879
Registration district: Axbridge
Inferred County: Somerset
Volume: 5c
Page: 582 (click to see others on page)
http://search.ancestry.com/iexec?htx=view&r=an&dbid=...And if this is true, then they probably got married about 1877/78 and left for the US shortly after.
Also, I've tracked Charles, who is actually Raymond Charles Cooper, in the 1920 & 1930 Census. He was married to a "Nellie" and then widowed by 1930.
John Albert Cooper died 15 Aug 1912 in MN, never married.
Benjamin W. Cooper died 29 Sep 1961 in MN. He was married to Rosella Noe.
Good luck!