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Origins
In the case of my own extended family i have so far been able to trace the Moes family back to the northern Netherlands province of Drenthe in the mid 1600s, Moes (in our case) is actually an shortening of Moeskoker from Moeskoecker/Mooskoocker.
I have identified other Moes families in Drenthe during the 1700s and continue researching to determine their origins. Two large Moes families in Drenthe are the Moes[pot] family (originally from Germany) centered around Hoogeveen and the Maat/Moet/Moes family of Meppel (originally from a small farm called De Maat).
I have also identified Moes families in Amsterdam, Friesland, Zeeland, Germany and Denmark.
Meaning
Limburg variant of Maas.(de Moes): Or nickname, or metonymic occupational name for a cook, from Middle Dutch "moes"= ‘food’, ‘porridge’, ‘stewed vegetables’. (van Moes): possibly a habitational name from Moerzeke in East Flanders, or a topographic name for someone who lived by the Maas river. Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-508137-4
Smilde, Drenthe, Nederlands
The genealogy site of Smilde (http://www.genealogievansmilde.nl/) has seven seperate Moes family trees but has not been updated for several years, I have connected all seven trees here on Geni via their shared ancestors. Moes-6 is the family tree to which I (Alex Moes) belong although my immediate family, having long ago left Smilde, do not appear on that site.